THE APPLICATION OF SINGING AND RHYTHMIC INSTRUCTION AS A THERAPEUTIC INTERVENTION FOR PERSONS WITH NEUROGENIC COMMUNICATION DISORDERS

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of singing instru ction and rhythmic instruction on the rate of speech and verbal intell igibility of neurologically impaired persons and to ascertain the infl uence of age, premorbid musical experience, and type of neurological i mpairment upon the subject's speech production. The subjects were 32 p atients with neurogenic communication disorders who were residents of a chronic care facility. They were randomly assigned to one of three g roups: the rhythm instruction group (n = 9), the singing instruction g roup (n = 9) and the control group (n = 14). A repeated-measures, fact orial design was implemented to compare speech performance between the three groups. The treatment groups met twice a week, 30 minutes per s ession, for a total of 9 weeks. The results of a one-way analysis of v ariance and analysis of covariance indicated significant differences b etween groups in verbal intelligibility, with the singing group making the most progress (F = 4.99, p = .014). Although there were not signi ficant differences in speech rate between groups, both treatment group s improved over the course of the study while the control group mainta ined their previous rate of speech. A multiple regression analysis rev ealed that, while premorbid musical experience was not a significant f actor, the treatment subjects' age range (t = 2.96, p = .005) and type of neurological impairment (t = 2.69, p = .009) were significant pred ictors of speech performance.