Dysarthria
Dysarthria
Many people struggle with Dysarthria, which is a speech delay resulting from weak
muscle in the face and neck. (Social Dialects 1983) It is caused by nerve damage or other
neuromuscular conditions. Cerebral Palsy has been one of the leading factors in individuals
experiencing Dysarthria due to nerve damage. (Alliance,2016) This disorder has been known to
make speaking difficult. It can cause listeners problems when they are trying to communicate—
often making their speech patterns hard-to-understand. Dysarthria is caused by brain tumors,
stroke, Guillain-Barre syndrome, Head Injury, Wilson’s disease, Muscular dystrophy,
Many People struggle with dysarthria which is a speech delay that is a result of weak muscles
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Huntington’s disease, Lyme disease, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease or
ALS), Myasthenia gravis, Parkinson’s disease, and Multiple sclerosis. (Dysarthria 2020)
However, there are treatments associated with Dysarthria through Speech-Language
pathologists and home exercisers that have been known to show improvements over time. These
improvements are only as useful as the treatments’ frequency. They have led to a decrease in
effectiveness when treatment is not regular. The motor speech impairment caused by Dysarthria
further categorizes this condition as a speech disorder.
When assessing an individual or oneself, some signs can lead someone to seek
professional help for an accurate medical diagnosis. (Khanna, 2019) This is especially the case in
children born with a nerve-damaging disability or victim of brain trauma. First, a person will
have to evaluate if the child has an underlying disease that can cause similar signs seen in
dysarthria disorders. It includes trouble moving their lips, mouth, face muscles, tongue, and
difficulty breathing. The most severe warning would be difficulty breathing because it can impair
the child’s ability to breathe independently. In this case, medical help is needed immediately.
(Khanna, 2019) In less severe cases, the individual can be further evaluated by a Speech-
Language-Pathologist (SLP) to help formulate a treatment and begin therapy.
The SLP will further help the individual determine if it is, in fact, Dysarthria or Aphasia
because these two disorders are commonly mistaken for one another. But it is also essential to
understand the differences when seeking help. Aphasia is always a result of brain damage or
injury seen on an MRI as abnormal spotting, bruising, or bleeding and has only recently needed
red dye technology for smaller injuries. (2019) Whereas Dysarthria is a result of nerve damage
that has weakened the facial muscles and contributes to an individual’s ability to properly move
their mouth, tongue, and lips to project understandable sounds. (Khanna, 2019)
Many People struggle with dysarthria which is a speech delay that is a result of weak muscles
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Even though they are both causes of speech delay or disorder, there are treatments that
SLP’s can provide to enhance communication and improve speech over time. As mentioned
above, Speech-Language pathologists are standard treatment options for individuals with
Dysarthria. (Levy, 2014) However, the type of treatment needed depends on the severity of the
individual’s condition. When implementing treatment on childhood dysarthria, two treatment
options yielded positive results. The detailed evidence was concluded from children who
experienced Dysarthria due to Cerebral Palsy. (Levy, 2014) During this study, researchers found
themselves puzzled because of their inability to replicate their studies. This resulted from a lack
of exploration of the condition and its effective treatments for cerebral palsy children.
Furthermore, SLPs who had wishes of conducting treatments based on the promise within the
literature also experienced a lack of guidance due to missing details of positive outcomes. (Levy,
2014)
The treatments used were Speech Systems Intelligibility Treatment (SSIT) and the Lee
Silverman Voice Treatment LOUD (LSVT LOUD) (Levy, 2014). Many observations were made
on Cerebral Palsy diagnosed children that also were diagnosed with childhood speech disorder
dysarthria. When treating children, the measurement of speech sound, developing motor control
linguistic systems, and cognitive development are all contributing factors. (Levy, 2014) So,
treatments have changed the course because of development millstones changing with the course
of treatment. In contrast to adults who acquired childhood dysarthria in an earlier life due to CP,
they were more likely to display language deficits, cognitive deficits, and phonological deficits
that affected other domains. (Levy, 2014) Leading researchers to experience inconclusive results
because of the changing childhood dysarthria mechanisms that differed in overall development.
(Levy, 2014)
Many People struggle with dysarthria which is a speech delay that is a result of weak muscles
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Recent findings show that specific speech treatments and techniques used in LSVT
LOUD were promising for functional improvement of overall speech, which became an
advanced recommendation for researchers and clinicians to implement as the first treatment for
childhood dysarthria disorder in CP children. During treatment, subsystems such as articulation,
resonance, respiration, and phonation were targeted specifically on each affected child’s needed
basis. (Levy, 2014) The focus remained on stabilizing respiratory, syllables per breath, speech
rate, and phonatory control, which also monitored phrase length and adjustments. When
evaluations were in order, older children (12-18 years of age) who range with moderate to severe
cases (dyskinetic, spastic or mixed) were found to increase their word intelligible by 12-16% for
single words after receiving ten phonetically words from the Children’s Speech Intelligibility
Measure that was similar to the measure of effectiveness withing this method. It counted the
