title: Variability and Diagnostic Accuracy of Speech Intelligibility Scores in Children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We examined variability of speech intelligibility scores and how well intelligibility scores predicted group membership among 5-year-old children with speech motor impairment (SMI) secondary to cerebral palsy and an age-matched group of typically developing (TD) children.
  
  
  METHODS
  Speech samples varying in length from 1-4 words were elicited from 24 children with cerebral palsy (mean age 60.50 months) and 20 TD children (mean age 60.33 months). Two hundred twenty adult listeners made orthographic transcriptions of speech samples (n = 5 per child).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Variability associated with listeners made a significant contribution to explaining the variance in intelligibility scores for TD and SMI children, but the magnitude was greater for TD children. Intelligibility scores differentiated very well between children who have SMI and TD children when intelligibility was at or below approximately 75% and above approximately 85%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Intelligibility seems to be a useful clinical tool for differentiating between TD children and children with SMI at 5 years of age; however, there is considerable variability within and between listeners, highlighting the need for more than one listener per child to ensure validity of an intelligibility measure.
authors.forename: Katherine C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Hustad
authors.forename: Ashley
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Oakes
authors.forename: Kristen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Allison
mesh_terms: D002547:Cerebral Palsy / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004401:Dysarthria / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D012372:ROC Curve; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013065:Speech Intelligibility; D013068:Speech Production Measurement / Q000379:methods*