Use of Listening Strategies for the Speech of Individuals with Dysarthria and Cerebral Palsy

This study examined listeners' endorsement of cognitive, linguistic, segmental, and suprasegmental strategies employed when listening to speakers with dysarthria. The study also examined whether strategy endorsement differed between listeners who earned the highest and lowest intelligibility scores. Speakers were eight individuals with dysarthria and cerebral palsy. Listeners were 80 individuals who transcribed speech stimuli and rated their use of each of 24 listening strategies on a 4-point scale. Results showed that cognitive and linguistic strategies were most highly endorsed. Use of listening strategies did not differ between listeners with the highest and lowest intelligibility scores. Results suggest that there may be a core of strategies common to listeners of speakers with dysarthria that may be supplemented by additional strategies, based on characteristics of the speaker and speech signal.