Dysarthria assessments

Question 1

what may a dysarthria assessment include?

Answer 1

RCSLT 2009:
- speech motor examination
- perceptual assessments that cover respiratory function/phonation/resonance/articulation/prosody/intelligiblity

Question 2

what should a dysarthria assessment include?

Answer 2

RCSLT 2009:
- communication skills
- patient’s perceptions of the condition
- psychosocial impact of the condition
- role of conversation partners

Question 3

what is included in a clinical dysarthria evaluation?

Answer 3

• case history
• non-speech oromotor movements
• vowel prolongation
• AMRs/SMRs
• contextual speech

Question 4

who created the Frenchay Dysarthria Assessment?

Answer 4

Enderby, 2008

Question 5

what are the Frenchay Dysarthria Assessment advantages?

Answer 5

• can help distinguish dysarthria type based on mean and standard deviation values
• readily available & relatively cheap
• can monitor treatment effects

Question 6

what are the Frenchay Dysarthria Assessment disadvantages?

Answer 6

• focuses on non-speech measures
• relies on skill and/or experience of SLT
• difficult to standardise

Question 7

what is the Frenchay Dysarthria Assessment made up of?

Answer 7

• a rating scale with 5 best fit descriptors
• gives a general impression rather than exact description
• ranges from A (normal for age) to E (unable to undertake task/movement/sound)

Question 8

who created the Assessment of Intelligibility in Dysarthric Speech?

Answer 8

Yorkston & Beukelman, 1981

Question 9

why is assessing intelligibility not always helpful for dysarthria?

Answer 9

• does not aid diagnosis as all dysarthrias can be mild to severe
• doesn’t always predict severity
• intelligibility (acoustic-phonetic aspects of speech) vs comprehensibility (understanding a speaker)

Question 10

who created the Dysarthria Impact Profile (DIP)?

Answer 10

Walshe et al., 2009

Question 11

what does the DIP do?

Answer 11

• assesses dysarthria at the participation level of the ICF
• focuses on psychosocial impact

Question 12

who created Communication Effectiveness (COAST) profile for assessing impact?

Answer 12

Long et al., 2008

Question 13

what is Communication Effectiveness (COAST)?

Answer 13

• patient-centred rating scale (20 items, 5-point)
• evaluates functional communication and impact on quality of life
• covers a range of severities