L3 Dysarthria Flashcards
purposes of dysarthria assessment
- To describe perceptual characteristics of the individual’s speech and relevant physiologic findings
- To describe speech subsystems affected (i.e., articulation, phonation, respiration, resonance, and prosody) and the severity of impairment for each
- To identify other systems and processes that may be affected (e.g., swallowing, language, cognition)
- To assess the impact of the dysarthria on speech intelligibility and naturalness, communicative efficiency and effectiveness, and participation.
dysarthria assessment components
- Case history
- Oro-facial examination
- Perceptual assessment of speech
- Assessment of intelligibility, comprehensibility, efficiency
- Assessment of activities and participation restriction
what to review in patient’s chart
- Medical history
- Investigations: MRI/CT Brain lesion site?
- MDT involvement
- Relevant surgery/hospitalisation
- Medication
main points to ask in case history
- Onset and course
- Co-occurring deficits
- Basic demographic and personal details (incl home. Occupational etc)
- Facilitators of and barriers to communication
- Current status in terms of speech
- Perception of their speech
- Consquences of their difficulties
- Management to date
- Expectations, awareness of medical diagnosis, prognosis etc.
what is an oro-facial exam
Assessment of speed, strength, range, accuracy, coordination, and steadiness of non-speech movements and assessment of the speech subsystems using objective measures, as available.
what does an oro-facial exam involve
- Cranial nerve exam (CN V, VII, IX, X, XI, XII)—to assess facial, oral, velopharyngeal, and laryngeal function and symmetry
- Observation of facial and neck muscle tone—at rest and during nonspeech activities (Clark & Solomon, 2012)
- Assessment of sustained vowel prolongation—to determine if there is adequate pulmonary support and sufficient laryngeal valving for phonation
- Assessment of alternating motion rates (AMRs) and sequential motion rates (SMRs) or diadochokinetic rates—to judge speed and regularity of jaw, lip, and tongue movement and, to a lesser extent, articulatory precision (see Kent, Kent, & Rosenbek, 1987
- Fasiculations and lingual atrophy is something that can be found during an oro-facial exam and they occur in motor neuron disease
what is instrumental speech evaluation
- Acoustic measures (visually represent features of the speech signal)
- Physiologic measures (electromyography, kinematic, aerodynamic)
- Visual imaging
- Visually display and numerically quantify frequency, intensity and temporal components of speech
why do we not often use instrumental speech assessment
- not always helpful for differential diagnosis
- requires equipment most clinics don’t have access to
perceptual speech assessment importance
Perceptual assessment and classification are the “gold standard” (Duffy 2013)
- Relies on auditory perceptual characteristics of the patient’s speech
- First and most crucial component
- Reliability depends on skill of clinician and it is difficult to quantify
five perceptual speech assessment tasks
- vowel prolongation
- alternating motion rates
- sequential motion rates
- contextual speech
- speech stress testing
how to assess vowel prolongation
‘take a deep breath and say “ah” as long, steadily and clearly as you can’
parameters of interest when assessing vowel prolongation
pitch, voice quality, breath support
two causes of reduced vowel prolongation
- Limited breath support (inadequate subglottic air pressure)
- Impaired vocal cord adduction for phonation (air escape during phonation)
how to assess alternating motion rates
DDK - puh puh puh
parameters of interest when assessing AMRs
Speed and regularity of movements of articulators, articulatory precision
Diadochokinesis
the ability to perform rapidly repeating or alternating movements.
AMRs present in flaccid and spastic dysarthrias
slow and regular AMRs
AMRs present in ataxic and hyperkinetic dysarthria
low and irregular AMRs