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Dysarthria - Speech Disorder

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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 …show more content…

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

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