Dysarthria

Abstract

Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder caused by generalized weakness to the oral musculature that occurs as a result of damage to the central and/or peripheral nervous system (Duffy 1995; Freed 2000; Vinson 2007; Zemlin 1998). This damage may occur as a result of stroke, head injury, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, or other brain injury (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association n.d.; Freed 2000). As a consequence of oral musculature weakness, the speech of individuals with dysarthria is slow and labored, and their articulation is imprecise (Freed 2000; Zemlin 1998). Other areas of speech may also be affected including respiration, voicing, and prosody (Duffy 1995).