Validity of Parent Ratings of Speech Intelligibility for Children with Cerebral Palsy

ABSTRACT

Aim: To examine the relationship between subjective parent ratings of intelligibility and objectively measured intelligibility scores for children with cerebral palsy (CP) with differing levels of speech severity.

Method: Fifty children (84–96 months) with CP were classified into groups based on intelligibility scores during a speech elicitation task – high intelligibility (90% or higher), mild-moderate intelligibility reduction (61–89%), and severe intelligibility reduction (60% or lower). Parent ratings of understandability (on a 7-point scale) were compared to intelligibility scores gathered from 100 naïve listeners.

Results: For children with mild-moderate and severe intelligibility reduction, there was a large range of variability in parent ratings. For children with high intelligibility, ratings were consistent with intelligibility scores. There was a range of intelligibility scores within each rating, especially in the middle of the scale.

Conclusions: For children with mild-moderate intelligibility deficits, parent ratings may best be used in conjunction with objective measurement of intelligibility.

Keywords:

• Intelligibility
• cerebral palsy
• parent rating
• severity
• measurement

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the children and families who participated in this research as well as the graduate and undergraduate students in the Wisconsin Intelligibility, Speech, and Communication Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who assisted in data collection and data reduction.

Disclosure Statement

The authors have no financial relationships relevant to this article to disclose. The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by grant R01 DC009411 from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health. Support was also provided by a core grant to the Waisman Center, U54 HD090256, from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health.