Dysarthria

DYSARTHRIA WHAT IS DYSARTHRIA? Speech production is a complex process involving the co-ordinated contraction of a large number of muscles controlled by the nerve impulses originating in the motor areas of cerebral cortex. The organs that are involved in speech production are the lips, the tongue, the vocal folds and the diaphragm. When these organs don’t function efficiently, the speech tends to be unclear. One such condition which results owing to the malfunctioning of the speech organs is Dysarthria. Dysarthria can be defined as ‘an impairment in the movement of the muscles of the organs that are concerned with speech production. This is because, the part of the brain that controls these organ movements do not work effectively.’ It is…

Dysarthria is a collective term used to describe a group of motor speech disorders. (17) It is caused by the underlying neurological deficits that impact the muscular control and execution of movement required for speech production. (18) Dysarthria is a common symptom of many neurological disorders, and the features of the speech dysfunction are distinctive. (17) Classic dysarthric presentations are characterised by a disturbance in the subsystems of speech, namely respiration, phonation,…

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Susan’s main areas of difficulty involve motor speech, which affects her intelligibility. Particularly relating to the larynx, use of the tongue in speech and coordination of the lips and palate. This indicates that Susan is likely experiencing mixed spastic-ataxic dysarthria due to lesions on the upper motor neurone pathway (Wilkinson and Lennox 2005) in the corticobulbar tract which innervates the cranial nerves and the cerebellum (Bethoux et al 2013). Lesions on the upper motor neurone…

Dysarthria is a speech disorder caused by a stoke, cerebrum damage, tumors, or Parkinson's disease. Dysarthria damages movements in muscles used for speech production. These muscles incorporate the tongue, vocal folds, lips and diaphragm. Dysarthria is weakened in communication due to shortcoming, loss of motion and incoordination of speech. It influences your pitch, loudness, voice quality, prosody, respiration and articulation. There are numerous sorts of dysarthria's, which are…

Scenario 1 The concerns that I have about this scenario is that CDA has been instructed by their supervising SLP to work on the patient’s speech output due to the severe nature of the patient’s dysarthria, while working on this they are also asked by a different specialty to monitor and document the patient’s ability to drink fluids during the session. It is not noted whether or not a swallowing assessment has been done by the SLP to determine if the patient should be even drinking fluids.…

Diagnosis & Tests Either a doctor or a certified speech-language pathologist will be called in to diagnose a possible case of dysarthria. At a typical exam, the patient will give a health care provider their medical history, which should include a list of all medications currently being taken. A physical exam will then be conducted to determine the problem and its severity. A speech-language pathologist would look at the movement of several muscles and structures involved in speech such as the…

Sullivan et al. (2000), found that 78% of children who have been diagnosed with CP have speech disorders, which caused delay in their speech development (BOOK). The primary speech impairment of CP patients is dysarthria, a neurologically based speech disorder which is the result of damage to the primary motor function area of the brain (frontal lobe). Dysarthria effects the patient’s speech muscles in speed, strength, steadiness, coordination, precision, tone, and range of motion. There are…

on the three main motor types of cerebral palsy, which are spastic, dyskinetic, and ataxic. Spastic CP is caused by damage to upper motor neurons, which results in excessive muscle tone and interruption of voluntary movements. Dyskinetic CP is characterized by variable involuntary movements such as muscular jerks and twitches and is caused by damaged to the basal ganglia. Ataxic CP is the least common type and is characterized by disordered involuntary movement due to damage in the cerebellum.…

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease that involves motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord. ALS is considered to be one of the most common progressive neurological diseases, affecting approximately 20,000 individuals in the United States in a given year (Fried-Oken et al., 2006). Etiology of ALS remains unknown; however, there appears to be an existing genetic component associated with this disease. Changes in speech are first seen in patients with bulbar onset…