A Study on Oral Diadochokinesis in Dysarthric Speakers

Abstract

Ability in oral diadochokinesis was investigated in a variety of types of dysarthria. Major results were as follows: 1. All types of dysarthria showed significantly slower repetition rates for all syllables than the control group indicating that this parameter is a sensitive one that reflects abnormal signs in the articulators beyond the scope of detection using a speech intelligibility test. 2. All types of dysarthria showed significantly increased coefficients of variation of the diadochokinetic period in almost all syllables as compared to the control group indicating that this parameter is a sensitive one that reflects abnormal signs in the articulators. 3. Ataxic dysarthria showed significantly increased coefficients of variation of the diadochokinetic peak intensity in all syllables as compared to the control group indicating that this parameter is a sensitive one that reflects abnormal signs in the articulators of this dysarthric group. 4. Coefficients of variation of both the diadochokinetic period and the peak intensity are considered to reflect abnormal signs in different aspects from those detected with a speech intelligibility test. © 2002, The Japan Society of Logopedics and Phoniatrics. All rights reserved.