van Doornik, A., Gerrits, E., McLeod, S., & Terband, H. (2018, in press April). Impact of listener familiarity and speech competence on parent ratings using the Intelligibility in Context Scale: Dutch. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.
Online access is here: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/uTVQWCg2aFSAMIkBZKDt/full
It forms a part of Anniek van Doornik's PhD studied through Utrecht University in the Netherlands (I am a co-supervisor). She presented this work at the Speech Pathology Australia National Conference last May in Sydney.
Here is the abstract
Purpose: This study investigated the effect of listeners’ familiarity on parents’ judgements of intelligibility of children with and without speech sound disorders (SSD).
Method: Participants were 67 Dutch-speaking children (48-84 months), 48 children with typically-developing speech (TD), and 19 with SSD. Item scores on the parent-rated Intelligibility in Context Scale: Dutch (ICS-NL) were compared between groups and related to naive listeners’ measurement of intelligibility (Intelligibility Rating, IR), and percentage of consonants correct-adjusted (PCC-A).
Result: Statistical analysis yielded a significant Group x Familiarity interaction on the ICS-NL items. Familiarity influenced the judgment of items representing close relationships in the SSD group more than in the TD group, resulting in relatively higher ratings in the SSD group. In the SSD group, stronger correlations were found between IR and the ICS-NL item scores that represented less familiarity. In contrast, PCC-A was only correlated with the item reflecting the least familiarity (strangers).
Conclusion: Children are more intelligible with people in close relationships due to familiarity with their child’s speech, so children’s relationships should be considered in clinical practice with respect to communicative participation. Since PCC-A was not influenced by familiarity, it may not be a reliable predictor of participation in family and community life.
