Evaluating the effect of mean length utterance, articulation and oral motor skills on speech intelligibility of individuals with cerebral palsy: Investigate with two different judges

Individuals with cerebral palsy are generally have problems with language, speech and communication. These problems can be seen as a result of the motor problems effected by brain damage. Language and motor speech problems also impact speech intelligibility, resulting in problems in communication. This research was conducted to investigate relationship between articulation, oral motor skills and mean length of utterance with speech intelligibility of individuals with cerebral palsy. Two different juries were formed to assess speech intelligibility, consisting of 10 speech language therapists and 10 lay people. The study also examine the relationship between intelligibility ratings of speech language therapists and lay people.Fourteen individuals with CP (age 4,7-27,1) living in Eskişehir participated in the study. Individual?s oral motor skills, articulation and mean length of utterance were evaluated. Speech language therapists and lay people rated individuals speech intelligibility using a 5 interval scale. In order to determine correlation between the datas, Pearson correlation analyze was used.The results show that oral motor skills was the strongest contributor to speech intelligibility. Articulation skills and mean length utterance were also shown to have a moderate correlation with speech intelligibility. According to research results there was a strong relationship between speech language therapists? and lay peoples? speech intelligibility ratings. This strong relationship suggests that speech and language therapists have higher expectations regarding people with speech disorders.