• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.213-221
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• 2010

The number of North Korean refugees entering South Korea is continuously increasing. North Korean speakers show significant differences in vowel and consonant phonetics, length of vowels, and the rhythm and intonation of sentences. The object of this research was to examine the effectiveness of a speech intervention program for North Korean refugees using visual feedback through acoustical analysis for intonation. The subjects were three adults with no speech disabilities who had been in South Korea for less than five years. They had not received any prior treatment for inflection change. The program was set in a discourse situation and used Praat to evaluate intonation and provide visual feedback as demonstrating proper intonation changes through pitch contour. The results after intervention are as follows. First, intonation was significantly improved according to a 5-point subjective evaluation scale. Second, the pitch contour was similar to the contour of standard South Korean pronunciation. The subjects were very satisfied with this initial treatment and showed a high level of motivation. In subsequent study, the development of intervention and the comparison of interventions will be needed as well.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.91-102
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• 1998

The present study attempted to modify the conventional Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT) in three aspects: number of syllables of adjacent target utterances (ATU), melody patterns of ATU, and initial listening of melody and intoned speech with the eyes closed. The modified Melodic Intonation Therapy (MMIT) was applied to two severe Korean aphasics. The patients exhibited a severely nonfluent aphasia resulting from a left CVA(Cerebrovascular Accident). The purpose of the modification was to avoid perseveration and improve reflective listening skills. First, the treatment program avoided ATU with the same number of syllables. Second, four different patterns of melody were developed: rising type, falling type, V-type, and inverted V-type. One type of prosodic pattern was preceded and followed by another type of melody. These two variations were to decrease perseverative behaviors. Finally, the patients kept their eyes closed when the clinician played and hummed a target melody at the initial stage of the program in order to improve reflective listening skills. A single-subject alternating treatment design was used. The effects of MMIT were compared to the conventional MIT. Differing the number of syllables and the type of melodic patterns decreased perseverative behaviors and produced more correct names. The initial listening of the target melody with the patients' eyes closed seemed to increase their attentiveness and result in a more fluent production of target utterances. Probable reasons for the effectiveness of MMIT were discussed.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.87-98
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• 2008

This study compares the pitch production of children using cochlear implants (CI) with that of children with normal hearing. Twenty subjects from six to eight years old participated in the study. Three kinds of sentences were read and analyzed using Visi-Pitch $\blacktriangleright$(KAY Elemetrics, Model 3300). There were no considerable differences between the two groups regarding pitch, mean fundamental frequency (F0) and pitch range. In the cases of the slope value of F0 and duration, however, there were significant differences. Thus, it is concluded that duration and pitch control can be crucial factors in determining the intonation treatment of the children with cochlear implants.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.163-171
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• 2018

A mixed dysarthria with combinations of hypokinetic, ataxic, and spastic components is a common clinical feature of multiple system atrophy (MSA). Due to the rapid progress of dysarthria after diagnosis, people with MSA experience difficulty with verbal communication, which eventually affects their quality of life negatively. In this study, SPEAK $OUT!^{(R)}$, an intensive 1:1 treatment of dysarthria for improving functional communicative ability, was provided to twelve people with MSA. To evaluate the efficacy of SPEAK $OUT!^{(R)}$ in people with MSA, aerodynamic, acoustic, and perceptual analyses were conducted. Pre-and post-therapy data included maximum phonation time, vocal intensity, and fundamental frequency during /a/ sustained phonation and passage reading; frequency range between high /a/ and low /a/ phonation; jitter, shimmer, and HNR for vocal quality; speech rate during passage reading; and perceptual evaluation scores for articulation precision and intonation. The participants achieved statistically significant improvement in vocal intensity, pitch range, vocal quality, speech rate, and speech intelligibility. In conclusion, SPEAK $OUT!^{(R)}$ is a feasible treatment for people with MSA to efficaciously improve their speech ability.

• Journal of Music and Human Behavior
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.57-67
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• 2005

Most of stroke patients have not only physical difficulty but speech and neurological disorder because of hemiplegia and such unexpected changes cause psychologic disadaptability and absent-mindedness. Particularly, lowering of physical ability can lead to serious emotional problem from failure or frustration in daily life. Generally, treatment of patient with stroke put emphasis on physical rehabilitation but actually this patient had considerable speech disorder such as aphasia or articulation disorder. Moreover, failing of recognition function, mental disorder as hypochondria, and even visual and auditory disorder are represented. So it is effective to integrate verbal remediation and other treatments in medical care environment. In particular, patients with language disorder very often wither psychologically therefore it is efficient to use of music therapy that gives opulent emotion to aphasia patients. And primarily to investigate the effects of 10 sessions treatments; change in spoken total number of syllables, to confirm their own value by success of given task and reassure about themselves ability. All of 10 sessions stages were scored by MIT manual and its improvement were measured, that is, accomplishment was analyzed within each level in order to prove detail change of spoken total number of syllables. The result of this program organized from 2 syllables to 4 syllables is summarized as follows. Subject A completed in preliminary stage Level I, in 2 syllables case advanced to Level III in fifth session and to Level IV in seventh session, in 3 syllables case advanced to Level III in seventh session and to Level IV in ninth session, and in 4 syllables case showed 8% low success rate in first session but after repeated practice increased considerably in sixth session and in advanced to Level III in eighth session to Level IV in tenth session. Subject B also completed in preliminary stage Level I, in 2 syllables case advanced to Level III in forth session and to Level IV in sixth session, in 3 syllables case advanced to Level III in fifth session and to Level IV in seventh session, and in 4 syllables case showed 10% low success rate in first session and increased considerably in fifth session and in advanced to Level III in seventh session but could not reach to Level IV until tenth session. As a result, it was shown that music therapy using MIT was not statistically meaningful but improved spoken total number of syllables and success rate of task had improved as a whole. Therefore, music intervention using MIT it has positive affect on verbal ability of patients with Broca's Aphasia and their language rehabilitation.

• Journal of Music and Human Behavior
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.21-30
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• 2007

Unlike other common forms of speech disorder, such as phonological disorder or dysphonia, stuttering has not been studied within the context of music therapy. Most cases of stuttering display no difficulty in singing, and fluency within the musical structure does not translate to fluency in speech. Hence, musical approach has been generally considered to be ineffective to the treatment of stuttering. However, the fundamentals of music therapy assume its extensive application in treating variety of speech disorders, including the case of stuttering. Presented in this paper are the case studies designed to validate the efficacy of music therapy as a remedy for stuttering. This study enrolled 6 children with stuttering and conducted 20 individual sessions over a period of 10 weeks. The sessions focused on the Melodic Intonation Therapy, Reinforcement of speech rhythm, song writing and singing. Musical elements were structured to enhance the verbal expression and rhythmic senses, as well as to facilitate the initiation of verbal communication. The result is as follows. First, it was noticed that the disfluency had been decreased in before and after of the music therapy in every child although the result was somewhat different depending the child. The overall result of the investigation shows the significant difference statistically. And categorically speaking, the significant difference was checked in the frequency of the stuttering. In the steps of the session, the increase and decrease was happened repeatedly, and then after it was decreased little by little. Secondly, the Communication Attitude was decreased in before and after of the music therapy, and also there was significant difference statistically. although the avoidance behavior was decreased in before and after of the music therapy, the increase and the decrease was repeated irregularly in the steps of session. All the results described above shows that music therapy gives positive effect to decrease in disfluency of stuttering child and also to develop the Communication Attitude. And new possibility and effectiveness can be proposed in the musical approach to the stuttering.