Dysarthria

Dysarthria is often referred to as slurred speech. It is caused when the nerves and muscles that control either the lips, tongue, jaw, cheeks, soft palate, voice box or breathing are damaged. This can result in weakness, paralysis, or poor coordination of the muscles involved. This can be as a result of stroke, or other neurological illness. The exact nature and severity of the difficulty can depend on the location and severity of the damage in the brain.

For some people, these difficulties eventually resolve, for others it may be long term.

People with dysarthria may experience:

• Slurred speech
• Difficulty making themselves understood#
• Hoarse voice
• Breathy voice / running out of breath easily when talking
• Problems controlling loudness of the voice – it may be too loud or too soft
• Difficulties controlling rate of speech – too fast or too slow
• Lack of intonation/inflection in speech causing it to sound ‘flat’
• 'Nasal’ sounding speech
• Facial weakness
• Numbness or tingling in the face
• Dribbling
• Problems with eating and drinking.

Commonly these difficulties become worse if the person is tired.

If you have dysarthria:

• Face your listener
• Take a deep breath before speaking
• Speak slowly, taking time between words and/or sentences
• Take regular breaths and pauses
• Exaggerate your speech
• Break longer words up into syllables
• Use shorter sentences
• Support what you are trying to say with actions/gestures/writing/pointing if possible
• Repeat and rephrase if others have difficulty understanding
• Use key words to alert people to the topic, e.g. when telling someone that ‘you are tired and what to go to bed’ repeat the key words ‘tired’ and ‘bed’ to get your message across
• Avoid talking over background noise
• Rest if you are feeling tired and come back to the conversation later on.

If you are talking to someone with dysarthria:

A speech and language therapist can identify the problems with your speech and look at ways to help you communicate and if appropriate, give you exercises to try and improve your speech.

What does therapy involve?

Following assessment, the speech therapist will design a specific treatment programme to address problem areas.

Therapy may include exercises to improve:

• Range, strength and speed of lip and tongue movements
• Breath support and control for speech
• Voice quality and volume
• Articulation
• Speech intelligibility in conversation.

Will my speech improve?

Improvement after any damage to the brain is often slow and follows no established timeframe. It is often difficult to predict the amount and speed of recovery. Sometimes people may have on-going speech problems. However, in many cases, the muscle function and speech improve with time. The Speech Therapist can provide specific advice and exercises to help recovery.

Saying short words

Lip movements for sounds

Practice saying the following words exaggerating the /p/, /b/, /m/ and /w/.

pop pip pope pump pup pup bye lap when

bib bob bub barb mum mime me rope will

bubble bauble babble pebble mumble mumbling purr knob way

boom plumber mimes mumps pamela pawpaw boy supper where

 

Tongue movements for sounds — practice saying the following sounds clearly.

la la la la ka ka ka ka kala kala kala kala ta ta ta ta

pa ta ka ba da ga ka ta pa ga da ba ta ka pa fa za tha

ga ba da ma na ma na ma na sa sha sa sha sa za fa tha fa

 

Practice saying the following words:

tie do two day sew ate add eyes own did pen maid mouthwash

doodle nonsense sailboat zero success table dash rope keep sum shot fate nostalgia

sell fine laughing tough Friday sleeve have advice expensive outside space sorry blizzard

answer reason leather clothing bathroom thousand looking baking kitchen teacher feature watch

 

4 syllable words

Identical Alligator Helicopter Caterpillar Watermelon Macaroni January Ordinary Community Television America Supermarket Celebrity

Equality Motivation Security Disposable Dedicated Delivery Population Apology Cooperate Dictionary Independent Recovery

Alliterative sentences — tongue twisters

• Greek grapes.
• Peggy Babcock.
• Black bug's blood.
• Flash message!
• Knapsack straps.
• Tragedy strategy.
• Selfish shellfish.
• Truly rural.
• Irish wristwatch.
• Mix, Miss Mix!
• Please pay promptly.
• Ed had edited it.

 

• Thieves seize skis. Are our oars oak? Cheap ship trip.
• The sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick.
• Shy Shelly says she shall sew sheets.
• Six thick thistle sticks. Six thick thistles stick.
• Lesser leather never weathered wetter weather better.
• Gertie's great-grandma grew aghast at Gertie's grammar. Sister Susie’s sewing shirts for soldiers.
• Slippery sleds slide smoothly down the sluiceway.
• A snifter of snuff is enough snuff for a sniff for a snuff sniffer.
• The seething sea ceaseth and thus the seething sea sufficeth us. A proper copper coffee pot.
• The sixth sitting sheet slitter slit six sheets.
• Irish wristwatch, swiss wristwatch.
• Red lorry, yellow lorry.
• Sinful Caesar sipped his snifter; seized his knees and sneezed.

Three gray geese in the green grass grazing; gray were the geese, and green was the grazing.

She sells seashells by the sea shore.
The shells she sells are seashells I’m sure.
So if she sells seashells on the seashore,
I’m sure she sells seashore seashells.

A Tudor who tooted a flute
tried to tutor two tooters to toot.
Said the two to their tutor,
“Is it harder to toot
or to tutor two tooters to toot?”

A bitter biting bittern
Bit a better brother bittern,
And the bitter better bittern
Bit the bitter biter back.
And the bitter bittern, bitten,
By the better bitten bittern,
Said: “I’m a bitter biter bit, alack!”

I need not your needles, they’re needless to me;
For kneading of noodles, ’twere needless, you see;
But did my neat knickers but need to be kneed,
I then should have need of your needles indeed.

Mr. See owned a saw.
And Mr. Soar owned a seesaw.
Now See’s saw sawed Soar’s seesaw
Before Soar saw See,
Which made Soar sore.
Had Soar seen See’s saw
Before See sawed Soar’s seesaw,
See’s saw would not have sawed
Soar’s seesaw.
So See’s saw sawed Soar’s seesaw.
But it was sad to see Soar so sore
Just because See’s saw sawed
Soar’s seesaw!

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck
if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
He would chuck, he would, as much as he could,
and chuck as much wood as a woodchuck would if a woodchuck could chuck wood.

Silly Sally swiftly shooed seven silly sheep. The seven silly sheep Silly Sally shooed
shilly-shallied south.
These sheep shouldn’t sleep in a shack;
sheep should sleep in a shed.
You’ve no need to light a night-light
On a light night like tonight,
For a night-light’s light’s a slight light,
And tonight’s a night that’s light.
When a night’s light, like tonight’s light,
It is really not quite right
To light night-lights with their slight lights
On a light night like tonight.

A flea and a fly in a flue
Said the fly “Oh what should we do”
Said the flea” Let us fly”
Said the fly “Let us flee”
So they flew through a flaw in the flue.

Betty Botter bought a bit of butter.
The butter Betty Botter bought was a bit bitter
And made her batter bitter.
But a bit of better butter makes better batter.
So Betty Botter bought a bit of better butter
Making Betty Botter's bitter batter better.

Facial exercises

Try to complete these 2 or 3 times a day, for a couple minutes at a time. It may help watching in a mirror and/or with a partner.

Lips

• Pucker your lips, as for a kiss and hold for a few seconds then relax. Repeat 3 times.
• Spread your lips into big smile, hold for a few seconds then relax. Repeat 3 times.
• Pucker and then hold, smile then hold, repeat this alternating movement several times.
• Close your lips tightly, asif you were saying ‘mm’. Relax and repeat. Puff air into your cheeks, hold for 3 seconds and then release.
• Puff air into one cheek and move the air onto the other cheek, then release.

Tongue

• Open your mouth and stick out your tongue. Hold for a few seconds then relax, repeat this several times.
• Stick out your tongue and move it slowly from corner to corner of your lips, hold in each corner for 3 seconds.