Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder resulting from paralysis, weakness, spasticity or incoordination of the speech musculature. The causes include neurological disorders: stroke, traumatic brain injury, brain tumor, Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and multiple sclerosis (MS)…
Several speech subsystems such as breathing, phonation, resonance, prosody and articulation can be affected, and the type of dysarthria a person has depends on which systems are involved and the extent/ location of the damage.
Mains symptoms include:
- a slow rate of speech, a slurred articulation
- a nasal voice, speech monotony
- very low voice intensity
- Difficulty moving the tongue, lips and/or jaws, dysphagia (swallowing difficulty) and drooling.
Treatment depends on the type and severity of dysarthria. In addition, dysarthria may co-occur with apraxia of speech and both must be addressed. Ultimately, the goal of the treatment is to improve overall speech intelligibility in order for the patient to be able to communicate in the clearest way with his peers.
Sometimes, augmentative and alternative communication devices including communication boards and electronic/computer devices, voice amplifiers may be used.