Abstract
CVC syllables, sustained fricatives and rapid diphthong repetitions were examined in ten patients with spastic dysarthria following closed head trauma and cerebro-vascular accident. Speech samples were evaluated hy acoustic-signal processing. The data obtained/or segment durations, vowel quality, and plosive realisations revealed a disproportionate impairment in gross movements of the tongue back as compared to the tongue blade. In the milder cases target configurations could often be realised to an acoustically normal extent, yet at the expense of production time. This and the abnormalities in diphthong repetitions suggested that the faculty of accelerating the moving structures was limited in the observed spastic dysarthrics. Control of fine forces, however, was not generally impaired.
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