Dysarthria - Speech Disorder

For as long as time can be accounted for, people, as well as animals have been known to interact with each other through various methods of communication. Communication is simply the exchange of receiving and sending information from one subject to another. The word information though covers so much. People are able to display ideas, feelings, needs and desires through communication as information to another subject.

For human beings the most common method of communication is by speaking to one another. We speak using our voices and interacting with other people, who for the most part, speak the same language. When two different languages are put into one conversation it may make communicating difficult but not impossible.

There are things that make communicating much more difficult than just having a language barrier. There are many people who have "an impairment in the ability to receive, send, process, and comprehend concepts or verbal, nonverbal and graphic symbols systems." This difficulty in communication is known as a communication disorder. More specifically, a person who has "a communication disorder, such as stuttering, impaired articulation, or a voice impairment that adversely affects a child's educational performance" is someone who has a speech impairment.

There are three basic types of speech impairments. The first is when a person continuously creates errors in the construction of their speech sounds; this is known as articulation disorders. The second basic type is fluency disorder which is when someone is having a hard time with the flow or the rhythm of speech. Finally, the third type is when there is a problem with the quality or use of one's voice, which is known as a voice disorder.

Communication disorders, more specifically, speech impairments have several different causes. Dysarthria for example refers to a group of speech disorders that are caused by several motor control impairments. According to Medterms, Dysarthria is defined as "speech that is characteristically slurred, slow and difficult to understand or produce. The person with Dysarthria may also have problems controlling the pitch, loudness, rhythm and voice qualities of their speech."

These speech problems are caused because of weakness and incoordination of the muscles that are involved with speaking or the nerves that manage them. Dysarthria can affect both children and adults. "Childhood Dysarthria can be congenital or acquired." Dysarthria can be a symptom of several diseases such as cerebral palsy, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, myotonic dystrophy, and Bell palsy, in children. A serious head injury could also lead to the result of having dysarthria.

There are also several reasons dysarthria could be caused in adults. It can be caused by a stroke, infections, brain tumors, head injuries, and toxins. Dysarthria could also be caused by degenerative diseases, in adults, such as Parkinson's, Huntington's, multiple sclerosis and myasthenia gravis.

A person with dysarthria experiences many different yet specific symptoms of dysarthria. "Slurred" speech and speaking softly or barely being able to whisper are common symptoms. Also, they may have a slower than average rate of speech or just the opposite, a rapid rate of speech but it is spoken unclearly. There is limited range of motion of the tongue, lip and jaw and the rhythm of speech is abnormal. Many times people with dysarthria sound nasal or stuffy as well as hoarse and out of breath. Due to weak muscles they may drool or have poor control of their saliva. Also they may experience problems with chewing and/or swallowing.

Dysarthria cannot be completely cured but it can be brought to lower level of intensity. There are absolutely no drug treatments for dysarthria but intense levels of speech therapy can be given which usually can be of great benefit. "Treatment depends on the cause, type, and severity of the symptoms." It is best if a speech-language pathologist works with the person to improve their communication capacities. The speech-language pathologist (SLP) may also work with the patients caregivers in order for them to better understand the person struggling with dysarthria.

A person with dysarthria who decides to receive speech therapy would experience several different methods of therapy. Depending on the severity of the disorder there may be a focus on the oral-motor skill development. This would include muscle strengthening exercises as well as practicing to increase mouth, tongue and lip movement. These exercises are also known as oro-facial exercises. If these areas of weaknesses are improved, speech becomes more clear and understandable.

Another way to improve speech would be to practice slowing down the rate of speech as well as improving breathing while speaking. The therapist may continuously ask the patient to pause for breath, to over-articulate, or to pause before important words to make them stand out.

For some people the level of dysarthria is so high that understandable speech may not be an option. In this case, they learn other methods of communicating. Some people may use alphabet boards in order to communicate. These boards contain all the letters of the alphabet and the person will point to each letter and spell out