Validity of acoustic speech measures obtained through videoconferencing with children with dysarthria

Children with dysarthria due to cerebral palsy often face barriers to receiving speech-language pathology services. Using online videoconferencing from home could be an appropriate solution if audio-recordings from such technology yield valid measures of the children's speech. This study assessed the validity of acoustic measures obtained from online recordings of children with dysarthria from their homes.

Speech of 17 children with dysarthria was recorded from their homes simultaneously via two methods: 1) Online via Zoom and 2) offline via an audio-recording device. Nine commonly-assessed acoustic measures were obtained by each method and compared. Correlations and agreements between measures extracted from online and audio-device recordings were evaluated for whether they met predetermined criteria for validity.

Second-formant range of diphthongs, fricative-affricate duration difference, word duration/articulation rate, mean fundamental frequency, and sound-pressure-level range met the criteria for validity. In contrast, fundamental frequency range, signal-to-noise ratio, and cepstral peak prominence did not meet validity criteria.

Findings support the validity of most commonly-analysed acoustic measures extracted from online recordings of children with dysarthria, suggesting that commercially-available videoconferencing technology could be an alternative to in-person evaluation. However, for perturbation- and noise-based measures, in-person recordings may still be necessary.