The Efficacy and Feasibility of Smartphone-Based Speech Therapy for People with Post-Stroke Dysarthria

Overview

This clinical trial aims to determine if a new smartphone-based speech therapy is effective and feasible for patients with post-stroke dysarthria. Participants in the intervention group will use the speech therapy app for 1 hour per day, 5 days per week, over a 4-week period. The control group will receive the same duration and frequency of traditional speech therapy as the intervention group. The study will help us understand if smartphone-based speech therapy is a viable treatment option for post-stroke dysarthria patients.

A total of 76 patients with post-stroke dysarthria will be recruited and stratified by the onset period into acute-subacute (within 6month after index stroke) and chronic (after 6 months after index stroke). Then participants are randomly divided into intervention and control groups. Patients in the intervention group will be instructed to use smartphone-based speech therapy applications, including oro-motor exercise, phonation, articulation, resonance, syllable repetition, and reading exercises. After the baseline evaluation, treatment goals, and contents will be determined with a speech-language pathologist according to the condition of individual patients. Daily sessions will be provided for 1 hour per day, 5 days per week, over a 4-week period. Patients in the control group will be instructed to receive traditional speech therapy. Traditional speech therapy can include face-to-face speech therapy, including oro-motor exercises, reading aloud slowly and clearly, and practicing proper breathing and sustained speech. To maintain the same dose and frequency as the intervention group, 60 minutes of treatment will be performed five days a week (e.g., two days of face-to-face speech therapy per week (60 minutes) + three days of self-training through the reading task workbook (60 minutes). The aim of the study is to establish smartphone-based speech therapy is non-inferior to traditional speech therapy for improving speech intelligibility.