Umeå University's logo

The oral diadokochinesia (DDK) task is an established tool for assessing speech motor control that has been used across a range of conditions. The predominant outcome measure reported after the patient have performed the task is the maximum syllable rate achieved by the patient. More recent reports have also highlighted stability in pace of the sequence as quantifications that may be indicative of speech impairment. While the DDK task affords quick and easy administration, concerns have been raised regarding the strength of association between DDK task performance and patients’s articulation in fluent speech. It may not be assumed that a reduced DDK rate or rate stability will cause fluent speech also to be perceived as slowed or dysrhythmic. And, patients may well improve their syllable rate at the expense of articulatory quality, which is currently not easily captured in an objective outcome measure.

We report here on an effort to assess to what degree information from an expanded quantification of DDK sequences may be used identify patients with dysarthria and to model clinical assessments of fluent speech. Acoustic quantifications of the consonant and consonant-vowel relationship are combined with previously used measures, and applied to manually processed DDK sequences produced by patients with Parkinson’s disease and normal control speakers. We observe how well these quantifications may form the basis for accurate identification of patients among normal controls, and predict the outcome of blinded and randomized clinical assessments of patients’ production of fluent speech.Rapid repetition of CV syllables (oral diadochokinesis, DDK) puts pressure on the speech motor system in order to afford detection of a deteriorating articulatory ability.

This study assessed

1.  how well objective quantifications of DDK

   sequences can be used to identify PD speakers

   among age matched controls (NC), and

2. how well a reduced articulatory ability in PD

   speakers may be predicted using quantifications of DDK sequences performed in the same recording session.

The comprehensive DDK sequence quantification achieved a 93% classification accuracy for speaker group and a 79% accuracy for reduced fluent speech articulatory quality. 

Den forskning som bedrivs inom logopedi i Sverige idag spänner över ett brett spektrum av medfödda, utvecklingsrelaterade och förvärvade kommunikationsstörningar på grund av röst-, tal- och språksvårigheter samt sväljstörningar. Precis som i andra länder pågår en snabb utveckling både mot en breddning av det urval av områden som det forskas kring och ett ökat fokus på nationellt samarbete. Även om de framsteg som görs inom respektive fält kan mätas genom de forskningsrapporter som publiceras av respektive forskargrupper, finns det ett behov av att granska vilka forskningsinsatser som bedrivs jämte det demografiska sammanhanget. I detta ståndpunktsdokument ger vi en översikt över logopediämnet och den forskning som bedrivs i Sverige. I en kubmodell illustreras hur kommunikations- och sväljstörningar kan beskrivas. Stratifierade (per åldersintervall) uppskattningar av prevalensen av kommunikations- och sväljstörningar ges baserat på 2016 års befolkningsstruktur. Genom att presentera dessa två komponenter identifieras forskningsområden och riktningar inom logopedi som behöver ges ökad uppmärksamhet i det kommande forskningsarbetet.