Knowra Dysarthria Dysarthria Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder caused by impaired control of the muscles used for speaking. It can affect speech clarity, voice, rhythm, and breath support.
Speech production : The coordination of breathing, phonation, resonance, articulation, and prosody to produce spoken language. Dysarthria disrupts the motor execution of this coordinated process.
Motor speech disorder : A disorder in planning or executing the movements needed for speech. Dysarthria belongs to this broader group of speech-movement disorders.
Speech-language pathology : The clinical field concerned with assessment and treatment of communication and swallowing disorders. Speech-language pathologists evaluate dysarthria and plan communication-focused care.
Parkinson disease : A progressive neurological disorder associated with loss of dopamine-producing neurons and impaired movement. It can cause hypokinetic dysarthria, often involving reduced loudness and monotonous speech.
Articulation : The shaping of speech sounds through coordinated movements of the tongue, lips, jaw, and palate. Imprecise articulator movements are a common source of reduced speech intelligibility.
Apraxia of speech : A motor speech disorder involving impaired planning or programming of speech movements, without primary muscle weakness. It can resemble dysarthria, but its central difficulty is motor planning rather than muscle control.
Intelligibility : The degree to which a listener can understand spoken words. It is a central functional measure when assessing the impact of dysarthria.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis : A progressive neurodegenerative disease that damages motor neurons controlling voluntary muscles. Bulbar muscle weakness in ALS can cause progressively worsening dysarthria.
Phonation : The production of voice through airflow-driven vibration of the vocal folds. Weak or poorly coordinated laryngeal control can alter loudness, pitch, and voice quality.
Aphasia : An acquired language disorder that affects speaking, understanding, reading, or writing. Unlike dysarthria, aphasia affects language processing rather than only the movements that produce speech.
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