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The Viking Speech Scale (VSS) was developed to assess childrens' communication ability for clinical evaluation of children with cerebral palsy (CP) and for clinical and epidemiological research (Virella, 2012). The VSS is for use in children 4 years and above. The scale has four levels of speech intelligibility:

I. Speech is not affected by motor disorder.

II. Speech is imprecise but usually understandable to unfamiliar listeners. Loudness of speech is adequate for one to one conversation. Voice may be breathy or harsh sounding but does not impair intelligibility. Articulation is imprecise; most consonants are produced, but deterioration is noticeable in longer utterances. Although difficulties are noticeable, speech is usually understandable to unfamiliar listeners out of context.

III. Speech is unclear and not usually understandable to unfamiliar listeners out of context. Difficulties controlling breathing for speech – can produce one word per utterance and/or speech is sometimes too loud or too quiet to be understood. Voice may be harsh sounding; pitch may change suddenly. Speech may be markedly hyper nasal. A very small range of consonants are produced. The severity of the difficulties makes the speech difficult to understand out of context.

IV. No understandable speech.

Scoring: Score to the level (I-IV) at which the child is understandable to strangers and unfamiliar conversation partners.

Score Levels:

I. Speech is not affected by motor disorder.

II. Speech is imprecise but usually understandable to unfamiliar listeners.

III. Speech is unclear and not usually understandable to unfamiliar listeners out of context.

IV. No understandable speech.