Evaluating Speech Usage in Daily Activities in Typical Adults

Abstract

`Speech usage' refers to what people want or need to do with their speech to meet communication demands in life roles. Documenting speech usage is critical in clinical work to plan relevant intervention goals for clients. It is also an important research variable for studying relationships between communication disorders and quality of life. The Levels of Speech Usage is a self-report scale to rate speech usage. The purpose of this study was to examine data from a normative sample of adults without communication disorders as part of the validation of the Levels of Speech Usage scale. 258 participants completed the Levels of Speech Usage scale and additional demographic questions in an online questionnaire in order to examine factors that predict speech usage. The data revealed a normal distribution of speech usage across the sample. The results suggest that employment is a major contributor to self-rated speech usage, but weak correlations with an occupational voice scale and considerable variance left unaccounted for in the regression models suggest that determinants of speech usage, and the relationship between speech usage and employment, are not yet fully defined.