• Speech Sciences
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.91-102
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• 1998

The present study attempted to modify the conventional Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT) in three aspects: number of syllables of adjacent target utterances (ATU), melody patterns of ATU, and initial listening of melody and intoned speech with the eyes closed. The modified Melodic Intonation Therapy (MMIT) was applied to two severe Korean aphasics. The patients exhibited a severely nonfluent aphasia resulting from a left CVA(Cerebrovascular Accident). The purpose of the modification was to avoid perseveration and improve reflective listening skills. First, the treatment program avoided ATU with the same number of syllables. Second, four different patterns of melody were developed: rising type, falling type, V-type, and inverted V-type. One type of prosodic pattern was preceded and followed by another type of melody. These two variations were to decrease perseverative behaviors. Finally, the patients kept their eyes closed when the clinician played and hummed a target melody at the initial stage of the program in order to improve reflective listening skills. A single-subject alternating treatment design was used. The effects of MMIT were compared to the conventional MIT. Differing the number of syllables and the type of melodic patterns decreased perseverative behaviors and produced more correct names. The initial listening of the target melody with the patients' eyes closed seemed to increase their attentiveness and result in a more fluent production of target utterances. Probable reasons for the effectiveness of MMIT were discussed.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.319-329
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• 2016

The present study was to test if breathing training in melodic intonation therapy (MIT) ameliorated the articulation intelligibility of Broca's aphasics or not. The experimental group did breathing training (2 stages) that preceded the MIT. In order to evaluate the efficacy of the MIT intervention, the VOT (Voice Onset Time), the TD (Total Delay), the voice sound intensity and the expiratory volume of the subjects, closely associated with articulation intelligibility were measured before and after the intervention. It was shown that, in the experimental group after the MIT intervention, the VOT and TD were increased on bilabial/p/, alveolar consonant /t/, and soft palatal /k/(p < 0.05), but no significant differences were found on affricate /c/ and fricative /s/(p > 0.05). In the control group, no significant increases in the VOT and TD were observed on all articulation points(p > 0.05). The voice sound intensity which influences the verbal articulation increased in the experimental group after the intervention(p < 0.05), whereas no significant changes were observed in the control group. In conclusion, the breathing training in the MIT was found to result in improving the articulation intelligibility of Broca's aphasiacs.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.237-252
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• 2002

MIT has been applied for nonfluent aphasic patients on the basis of lateralization of brain hemisphere. However, its applications for different languages have some inquiry for aphasic patients because of prosodic and rhythmic differences. The purpose of this study is to develop the Korean Melodic Intonation Therapy program using personal computer and its clinical effects for nonfluent aphasic patients. The algorithm was composed to voice analog signal, PCM, AMDF, Short-time autocorrelation function and center clipping. The main menu contains pitch, waveform, sound intensity and speech files on window. Aphasic patients' intonation patterns overlay on selected kMIT patterns. Three aphasic patients with or without kMIT training participated in this study. Four affirmative sentences and two interrogative sentences were uttered on CSL by stimulus of ST. VOT, VD, Hold and TD were measured on Spectrogram. In addition, articulation disorders and intonation patterns were evaluated objectively on spectrogram. The results indicated that nonfluent aphasic patients with kMIT training group showed some clinical effects of speech intelligibility based on VOT, TD values, articulation evaluation and prosodic pattern changes.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.75-83
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to examine how a singing program using self-voice monitoring for children with cochlear implants (CI) influences on the intonation and the accuracy of pitch production. To verify and estimate the effectiveness, a program was conducted with participants of 7 prelingual CI users, whose aged between 4 years and 7 years. The program adopted three stages from the self-voice monitoring: Listen, Explore, and Reproduce (LER stage). All participants received 8 singing sessions over 8 weeks, including pre-test, intervention, and post-test. For the pre and post-test, participants' singing of an excerpt of a song "happy birthday" and speaking three assertive sentences and three interrogative sentences were recorded and analyzed in terms of the intonation slopes at the end of the sentences and the melodic contour. From the sentence speeches, we found that the intonation slopes of the interrogative sentences significantly improved as they showed similar patterns with that of the average normal hearing group. Also, in regard to singing, we observed that the melody contour had progressed, as well as the range of pitch production had extended. The positive result from the intervention indicates that the singing program was effective for children with CI to develop the intonation skill and accuracy of pitch production.

• Journal of Music and Human Behavior
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.57-67
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• 2005

Most of stroke patients have not only physical difficulty but speech and neurological disorder because of hemiplegia and such unexpected changes cause psychologic disadaptability and absent-mindedness. Particularly, lowering of physical ability can lead to serious emotional problem from failure or frustration in daily life. Generally, treatment of patient with stroke put emphasis on physical rehabilitation but actually this patient had considerable speech disorder such as aphasia or articulation disorder. Moreover, failing of recognition function, mental disorder as hypochondria, and even visual and auditory disorder are represented. So it is effective to integrate verbal remediation and other treatments in medical care environment. In particular, patients with language disorder very often wither psychologically therefore it is efficient to use of music therapy that gives opulent emotion to aphasia patients. And primarily to investigate the effects of 10 sessions treatments; change in spoken total number of syllables, to confirm their own value by success of given task and reassure about themselves ability. All of 10 sessions stages were scored by MIT manual and its improvement were measured, that is, accomplishment was analyzed within each level in order to prove detail change of spoken total number of syllables. The result of this program organized from 2 syllables to 4 syllables is summarized as follows. Subject A completed in preliminary stage Level I, in 2 syllables case advanced to Level III in fifth session and to Level IV in seventh session, in 3 syllables case advanced to Level III in seventh session and to Level IV in ninth session, and in 4 syllables case showed 8% low success rate in first session but after repeated practice increased considerably in sixth session and in advanced to Level III in eighth session to Level IV in tenth session. Subject B also completed in preliminary stage Level I, in 2 syllables case advanced to Level III in forth session and to Level IV in sixth session, in 3 syllables case advanced to Level III in fifth session and to Level IV in seventh session, and in 4 syllables case showed 10% low success rate in first session and increased considerably in fifth session and in advanced to Level III in seventh session but could not reach to Level IV until tenth session. As a result, it was shown that music therapy using MIT was not statistically meaningful but improved spoken total number of syllables and success rate of task had improved as a whole. Therefore, music intervention using MIT it has positive affect on verbal ability of patients with Broca's Aphasia and their language rehabilitation.

• Journal of Music and Human Behavior
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.21-30
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• 2007

Unlike other common forms of speech disorder, such as phonological disorder or dysphonia, stuttering has not been studied within the context of music therapy. Most cases of stuttering display no difficulty in singing, and fluency within the musical structure does not translate to fluency in speech. Hence, musical approach has been generally considered to be ineffective to the treatment of stuttering. However, the fundamentals of music therapy assume its extensive application in treating variety of speech disorders, including the case of stuttering. Presented in this paper are the case studies designed to validate the efficacy of music therapy as a remedy for stuttering. This study enrolled 6 children with stuttering and conducted 20 individual sessions over a period of 10 weeks. The sessions focused on the Melodic Intonation Therapy, Reinforcement of speech rhythm, song writing and singing. Musical elements were structured to enhance the verbal expression and rhythmic senses, as well as to facilitate the initiation of verbal communication. The result is as follows. First, it was noticed that the disfluency had been decreased in before and after of the music therapy in every child although the result was somewhat different depending the child. The overall result of the investigation shows the significant difference statistically. And categorically speaking, the significant difference was checked in the frequency of the stuttering. In the steps of the session, the increase and decrease was happened repeatedly, and then after it was decreased little by little. Secondly, the Communication Attitude was decreased in before and after of the music therapy, and also there was significant difference statistically. although the avoidance behavior was decreased in before and after of the music therapy, the increase and the decrease was repeated irregularly in the steps of session. All the results described above shows that music therapy gives positive effect to decrease in disfluency of stuttering child and also to develop the Communication Attitude. And new possibility and effectiveness can be proposed in the musical approach to the stuttering.