Dysarthria

Speech that is characteristically slurred, slow, and difficult to produce (difficult to understand). The person with dysarthria may also have problems controlling the pitch, loudness, rhythm, and voice qualities of their speech. Dysarthria is a disorder caused by paralysis, weakness, or inability to coordinate the muscles of the mouth. Dysarthria can occur as a developmental disability. It may be a sign of a neuromuscular disorder such cerebral palsy or Parkinson disease. It may also be caused by a stroke, brain injury, or brain tumor. Treatment of dysarthria is by intensive speech therapy with the focus on oral-motor skill development.

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A disturbance of speech due to emotional stress, to brain injury, or to paralysis, incoordination, or spasticity of the muscles used for speaking. SYN: dysarthrosis (1). [dys- + G. arthroo, to articulate]

- ataxic d. d. caused by cerebellar lesions.

- hyperkinetic d. d. caused by chorea and myoclonus.

- hypokinetic d. d. caused by the rigid types of extrapyramidal disease.

- lower motor neuron d. d. caused by dysfunction of the motor nuclei and the lower pons or medulla, or other neural connections, central and peripheral to the muscles of articulation.

- rigid d. SYN: spastic d..

- spastic d. d. caused by lesions along the corticobulbar tracts. SYN: rigid d..

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dys·ar·thria dis-'är-thrē-ə n difficulty in articulating words due to disease of the central nervous system compare DYSPHASIA

dys·ar·thric -thrik adj

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n.

a speech disorder in which the pronunciation is unclear although the language content and meaning are normal.

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dys·ar·thria (dis-ahrґthre-ə) [dys- + arthr-² + -ia] a speech disorder consisting of imperfect articulation due to loss of muscular control after damage to the central or peripheral nervous system. Cf. anarthria and aphasia. dysarthric adj