Essay on Dysarthria and Aphasia

Jane is a 65-year-old -year woman resident of the service-learning center (Alderwood Manor), I was able to visit. Jane has a difficulty making sounds of the words she wants to say. For instance, she meant to say, “I want Honey's for snack” but what comes out from her mouth would sound like “I-want-huh-nee-oz-for-suh-nack”. Jane has a condition called Apraxia of speech (AS) associated with another neurogenic communication disorder (NCD) called dysarthria. This condition occurs when “the messages from the brain to the mouth are disrupted, and the person cannot move his or her lips or tongue to the right place to say sounds correctly, even though the muscles are not weak” (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2016). Duffy (2005) notes that 41% of the 155 affected persons who had a primary speech pathology diagnosis of apraxia of speech had suffered a single stroke; lesions in the area of the left middle cerebral artery distribution were commonly associated with apraxia of speech. Recent studies, however, show that apraxia of speech cannot be attributed to a single lesion site since it could be subcortical and/or cortical in nature (Murdoch, 2013). Jane is primarily diagnosed with apraxia of speech, but it is also important to note

Patients with ASD may imitate what is being said to them with limited speech and may find it difficult to process what is going on around them and so are prone to feeling disorientated as well as being less proficient, frustrated or anxious therefore practitioner should avoid frustration and emphatic towards the patient (National institute of mental health, 2015)

The American Speech- Language- Hearing Association (2011) has clearly stated the scope of practice for practicing Speech Language Pathologist as it relates to Augmentative Alternative Communication. It includes:

Speech and language disorders can be acquired from brain injury and external force. According to the mechanistic model of aging, the brain is seen as our hard drive (Rysberg 2016). Information is stored and signals are sent to the rest of the body. Any interference such as a stroke can alter the way a person functions. Speech Language Pathologists often come in when traumatic brain injury is seen in a patient. The brain is separated into two hemispheres; one processes language and reasoning while the other, the right side, houses the emotional aspect of communication. While someone possessing a traumatic brain injury to the right side of the brain may not exhibit problems with their articulators and Nero motor connectors, they may have problems

Aphasia is a language disorder that results from damage to portions of the brain that are responsible for language. For most people, these are parts of the left side (hemisphere) of the brain. Aphasia usually occurs suddenly, often as the result of a stroke or head injury, but it may also develop slowly, as in the case of a brain tumor. The disorder impairs the expression and understanding of language as well as reading and writing. “Aphasia may co-occur with speech disorders such as dysarthria or apraxia of speech, which also result from brain damage”. (Sarno 23)

Her parent reported speech and voice concerns saying she would take a full tidal breath not always having enough breath. She would stop in the middle of sentences to get a breath. Her observed speech and voice signs were variable loudness and variable pitch. She has a inconsistent strained voice quality, especially at end of sentences and a mild imprecise articulation. She had moderate spastic Dysarthria. She was assigned to study condition D. Her gender matched control was a seven year old female. There was a gender matched control group that was recruited to participate in the study. This allowed for a direct comparison between the performance of participants with Cerebral Palsy and their matched peers, because data were collected using the same tasks and methodology. (Fox,Boliek

When a person works as a speech therapist there are multiple cases where you will deal with clients whose dysfluencies are caused by a deficiency in the nervous system. The nervous system is the control center of the body. Any damage to this system can cause long lasting affects to all the other systems. A person may have a stroke, traumatic brain injury, or a tumor that may result in dysfluency. Neurogenic stuttering is a type of dysfluency that can arise due to damage to the nervous system. Stuttering is involuntary interrupted speech. There are different types of stuttering-like disfluencies such as part-word repetition, single syllable word repetitions, and dysrhythmic phonations. The other dysfluencies people may have due to neurological damage is interjections polysyllabic word repetitions, phrase repetitions, and revisions. People are affected by these types of stuttering across the lifespan.

A humanistic concept of communication, including proper language and articulation skills, has fascinated mankind for centuries. Our ability to verbally relay thoughts, feelings, ideas, and information to one another proves to be a crucial aspect of social and interpersonal relationships. Regardless of any precautions we take regarding speech preservations at an early age, various speech, voice, or language disorders remain prevalent in society. I recently had the opportunity to participate in a speech/voice/language clinical observation and witness a therapy secession between two clinicians and a young child with a childhood onset fluency disorder. The patient, despite living with this disorder from birth, displayed little to no signs of orthodox stuttering characteristics; however, she portrayed various core

This study looked at the short and long-term effects of the Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT) program for individuals with dysarthria resulting from a stroke or traumatic brain injury (TBI). Five males and five females, with an age range of 19-80 years, and a range of post-onset of 6-144 months participated in this study. Seven suffered from a TBI and 2 experienced a stroke. The severity of dysarthria ranged from mild to moderately impaired. Nine of out the ten participants also presented with some form of cognitive impairment. All participants spoke and understood English and were stimulable to an improvement in the volume/quality of their voice. An ABAA experimental design was used to look at the effects of the LSVT on the participant’s speech

There are two types of computerized training tools to help remediating DD. The first test is The Number Race is designed to improve precision of numerical magnitude. The second test is Graphogame. It lets individuals compare sets of objects.

For individuals without fluency disorders, DAF results in slower speech, vowel prolongations, blocks, changes in speech prosody, articulation errors and stuttering (Takson et al., 2010). However, DAF has opposite effects for individuals with pre-existing fluency disorders. According to Takson et al. (2010), PWS find their speech production becomes more fluent when altered speech feedback is implemented, including DAF. Since DAF has “been shown to produce immediate and extremely powerful reduction of stuttering” (Stuart & Kalinowski, 2004, p. 349) researchers have developed portable prosthetic devices that offer binaural or monaural DAF (Hudock & Kalinowski, 2014) PWS decrease the number of dysfluencies in their

The journal articles “Does intensity matter in aphasia rehabilitation” by Linda Worrall and Abby Foster (2017) and the “Amount of Therapy Matters in Very Early Aphasia Rehabilitation after Stroke: A Clinical Prognostic Model” by Erin Godecke et al., (2013) complemented well with Alison Lemke’s lecture on Acquired Neurogenic Communication Disorders. Both articles discussed factors that predict the best aphasia recovery during early intervention and where further research is needed. The contributions that these researchers made can drastically impact the early recovery phase of aphasia. The researchers’ studies relate well with Lemke’s presentation due to how applicable their work is in Speech Language pathologists therapy plans.

“A communication disorder such as stuttering” provides an example of a fluency disorder; other fluency issues include unusual word repetition and hesitant speech. “Impaired articulation” includes impairments in which a child experiences challenges in pronouncing specific sounds. “A language impairment” can entail difficulty comprehending words properly, expressing oneself and listening to others. Finally, “a voice impairment” involves difficulty voicing words; for instance, throat issues may cause an abnormally soft

Hypokinetic dysarthria describes a patient with low amplitude, hoarse voice, and little intonation in speech. Speed of production is slower, and initiating speech can be difficult. These speakers due to coarticulation often miss target sounds, which results in inaccurate consonant productions. These speakers may experience difficulty with facial movement during speech and get stuck on certain syllables.

Parents who bring their child to me for Speech Pathology often tell me that they have looked dyspraxia up on the internet, but there are so many different terms that seem to be used it becomes very confusing.