The use of an intraoral training aid in the speech rehabilitation of laryngectomy patients.
This study was undertaken to determine whether the speech of poorly rated esophageal speakers could be improved with the aid of a structured palatal prosthesis. Palatograms testing certain speech sounds critical to the plosive-injection technique for air intake showed that improvement resulted after one week of wearing the training prosthesis. All subjects showed some improvement in speech after wearing the prosthesis for one week. Eight out of 10 subjects showed marked improvement in speech. It is suggested that a physiologically structured palatal prosthesis can assist some esophageal speakers to improve their speech.
D006801:Humans; D007825:Laryngectomy; D010158:Palatal Obturators; D013071:Speech, Alaryngeal; D013072:Speech, Esophageal; D014059:Tongue / Q000502:physiology