Premium
Measuring up to speech intelligibility
Author(s) -
Miller Nick
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
international journal of language and communication disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.101
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1460-6984
pISSN - 1368-2822
DOI - 10.1111/1460-6984.12061
Subject(s) - intelligibility (philosophy) , active listening , psychology , clinical practice , cognitive psychology , applied psychology , communication , medicine , epistemology , philosophy , family medicine
Improvement or maintenance of speech intelligibility is a central aim in a whole range of conditions in speech–language therapy, both developmental and acquired. Best clinical practice and pursuance of the evidence base for interventions would suggest measurement of intelligibility forms a vital role in clinical decision‐making and monitoring. However, what should be measured to gauge intelligibility and how this is achieved and relates to clinical planning continues to be a topic of debate. This review considers the strengths and weaknesses of selected clinical approaches to intelligibility assessment, stressing the importance of explanatory, diagnostic testing as both a more sensitive and a clinically informative method. The worth of this, and any approach, is predicated, though, on awareness and control of key design, elicitation, transcription and listening/listener variables to maximize validity and reliability of assessments. These are discussed. A distinction is drawn between signal‐dependent and ‐independent factors in intelligibility evaluation. Discussion broaches how these different perspectives might be reconciled to deliver comprehensive insights into intelligibility levels and their clinical/educational significance. The paper ends with a call for wider implementation of best practice around intelligibility assessment.