Praat

1. Start up Praat

2. Click: open, read from file….

   1. Load wave file from: \\wcs-cifs\wc\smng\experiments\cereb_DDK_bodys\DDK_BoDyS_analysis

   2. \\wcs-cifs\wc\smng\experiments\BoDyS

      1. Put the textgrids within the participant folder containing the wave file.

   3. \\wcs-cifs\wc\smng\experiments\cerebMotorSpeech\acousticdata

      1. Put the textgrids within the participant folder containing the wave file.

3. Make a textgrid: ‘annotate’ – ‘To textgrid…’; enter in “All tier names”: ‘segment’ and leave the box “which of these are point tiers” empty; press ok

   1. good document that describes the following steps: https://users.castle.unc.edu/~jlsmith/ling520/praat/4textgrid.pdf

4. Select the wave form and the text grid

5. View & Edit

   1. Zoom out: ctrl o

   2. Zoom in:  ctrl i

6. If you know the time of the event, go to Select: “move cursor to”, enter time in seconds (minutes times 60). 

   1. times of the events in the excel sheet

   2. The speech motor exam starts appr. 2 minutes after the time indicated in the Notepad (first, there are several questions).

   3. The BoDyS (link to full assessment for context): first a general story before the sentences and paragraphs.

7. Segment on tier 1 with a start and end:

   1.  the start of the segment in the waveform and add Boundary on tier 1 by

      1. clicking on the small circle on the line. 

      2. Or press “enter”

   2. Enter the label in between the two boundaries by clicking inside the selected interval.

Segmenting guidelines

1. When the speaker repeats the speech sequence: only segment the speech with the most repetitions. For example: papapapapapa (participant takes a breath) papapapapapapapapapapapapapa. In this case, the second one should be labeled.

2. Put the cursor exactly at the start of the waveform by selecting the tab “boundary”: move to nearest zero-crossing. Inspect the waveform as well!!

3. for “pa”, “ta”, ka” and “pataka”: put the first marker at the release of the closure (left): you will see a "burst" in the form of vertical black lines (energy across the complete spectrum). Sometimes this is not very clear because of weak articulation. Label in these cases, the point when you see spectral energy. The end: when the formant trace (red lines) is not visible anymore and the accurate pitch measurement is not possible (blue line). In this case, the waveform also does not show a clean oscillation anymore.

11. For conversational speech, picture description, sentences and paragraphs, leave some space before the start of the sentence:

Sections of the recording which will be segmented

The recording will have DDK tasks (syllable repetition), and then the Bogenhausen Dysarthria Scales (BoDyS). The BoDyS has 4 tasks, repeated in 3 blocks:

block 1

conversation (labeled CS1)

5 sentences (labeled S1-S5)

paragraph (labeled P1)

picture description (labeled PD1)

block 2

conversation (CS2)

5 sentences (S6-S10)

paragraph (P2)

picture description (PD2)

block 3

conversation (CS3)

5 sentences (S11-S15)

paragraph (P3)

picture description (PD3)

1.  Save the textgrid in the folder: \\wcs-cifs\wc\smng\experiments\DDK_Ataxia\Zoom_waveFiles (For example: audio_ca025_2022-04-11.TextGrid)

2. The waveform is already in that folder.

DDK

For context, here are the DDK instructions and order of tasks.

These must have an exact start and end.

label the segment with the most repetitions (see "segmenting guidelines" section above)

1. label: ui

2. label pa

3. label ta

4. label ka

5. label sha

6. label oi

7. label boy

8. label pataka

Conversational speech

label with CS1, CS2, CS3

Sentences

Paragraph reading

The paragraphs should be labeled P1, P2, and P3. The text of each paragraph is below for context.

Technology (labeled P1)

Perhaps you have seen science-fiction movies as a child and were intrigued by the idea of talking to someone on a little watch-like device. Well, today we almost take it for granted. Most people own a smartphone and a growing number of us also have watches that can make calls. Do you sometimes wonder what will be next? Maybe one day we will be able to say: “Beam me up, Scotty!” and travel within a blink of an eye from continent to continent. 

The International Children’s Day (labeled P2)

Did you know that there is a special day to celebrate children? It’s called the International Children’s Day.  A pastor introduced this day in the U.S. in 1857. Little did he know that about 90 years later many countries around the world would observe this day on June 1^st. However, Children’s Day does not only exist to celebrate children. It was also established to raise awareness of those kids who are not fortunate enough to live happy and carefree lives.

Home-Made Ketchup (labeled P3)

Do you know how to make ketchup from scratch?  Clearly, you will need lots of ripe, fresh tomatoes but it may be a surprise to you how much sugar it takes to make ketchup taste good! Many people also add onion, garlic, bay leaves, and allspice to enhance the flavor. Everything needs to simmer in a slow cooker until it has thickened.  That can take a while!  But when you finally get to eat your home-made ketchup, believe me, you will love the taste.

Picture description task (cartoons)

label with PD1, PD2, PD3