The relationship between information transfer and speech intelligibility of dysarthric speakers

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between information transfer and speech intelligibility, as measured by single-word and paragraph transcription across a wide range of dysarthric speakers. Nine dysarthric speakers, including ataxic, spastic, and hypokinetic types, participated in the study. Their performance was judged by 108 listeners. The correlations between information transfer and paragraph transcription scores and between information transfer and word transcription scores were high, i.e., 0.95 and 0.90, respectively. Word transcription scores tended to be slightly lower than information transfer scores for mildly dysarthric speakers. Clinical implications of these findings were discussed.