Dysarthria

 

Dysarthria can affect all parameters of speech production including:

• Respiration phonation (ability to make sound)
• Facial musculature
• Speed of oral movements
• Articulation (ability to form the correct sounds)
• Intelligibility
• Prosody (intonation)
• Rate

 

How to help:

Encourage the patient to:

• Slow down
• Take more pauses
• Exaggerate sounds
• Use short phrases
• Encourage gesture
• If intelligibility is poor, consider trying alternative communication aids e.g. pen and paper, lightwriter, message mate, book, voice amplifier