“How will a speech language therapist help me with dysarthia?”
I've had dysarthia for a long time, since I was a kid. How will a speech language therapist help me?
5 Answers
Kimberly Baradei
Speech-Language Pathologist
Generally, muscle strengthening is the key way that a Speech Language Pathologist can help you improve your condition.
Dysarthria is generalized weakness to the muscles used for speech production. Oral Motor exercises can help in strengthening these muscles. If you struggle with motor planning, practice in producing these sounds using speech pathology techniques can help. It is best to have a speech pathologist evaluate you and make a determination as to what will give the most bang for your buck.
Dysarthria is usually a result of neurological damage e.g. stroke or traumatic head injury etc. Usually children have childhood Apraxia of speech. Is your problem a simple articulation difficulty or a more complex Apraxia of speech. It all depends and without an assessment it is difficult to say what will be done. In any case your speech can definitely be improved with therapy. If you are an adult you will have to put in a lot of effort too.
Terlenda Lassiter
Speech-Language Pathologist
Dysarthria of speech is a condition that speech language pathologists work with and it is definitely advised for you to get an evaluation. There are many exercises that can be demonstrated to you to improve comprehensibility of speech.
Speech therapy can help with dysarthria by helping you find strategies to speak more clearly, help with fatigue, and much more. I've attached an article to explain more.
https://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/dysarthria/
https://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/dysarthria/
