Name that disorder
This disorder is most likely when speech errors become more inconsistent as word complexity increases.
AOS
A patient has both aphasia and a motor speech disorder. What should determine your treatment priorities?
It depends on the Pt's communication profile - whichever disorder has the greatest impact on functional communication
Give one example of a compensatory strategy that may improve intelligibility
Slow rate, overarticulation, increased loudness, pause between phrases, or gaining listener attention
What is the primary goal of dysarthria management?
Maximizing speech intelligibility, efficiency, and naturalness
Name one speech subsystem you should always consider when listening to a patient & why?
Respiration, phonation, resonance, articulation, or prosody. ALL important to consider and assess
A patient demonstrates hypernasality, nasal emission, and breathy voice following cranial nerve damage
Flaccid dysarthria
For a patient with spastic dysarthria, what breath support approach should be used with caution or avoided
EMST - strength training exercises
Name a difference in AOS and dysarthria management
Dysarthria treatment focuses on restoring or compensating for impaired neuromuscular execution (e.g., improving breath support, resonance, articulation through strengthening or compensation).
Apraxia of Speech (AOS) treatment focuses on retraining the planning and sequencing of motor movements for speech (e.g., Sound Production Treatment, articulatory cueing, and repetition of specific speech targets).
What are some things you can do with someone with SEVERE AOS and aphasia with limited verbal output?
Script training, Automatic Speech tasks, Carrier phrases, Gestures, AAC
Speech sounds hypernasal. Which speech subsystem should you investigate further?
Resonance (velopharyngeal function)
This disorder often presents with irregular articulatory breakdowns and scanning speech despite normal strength
Ataxic dysarthria
Why isn't practicing isolated tongue movements expected to improve conversational speech?
Because motor learning is task-specific
Name a similarity in AOS and dysarthria management.
Both dysarthria and apraxia of speech benefit from motor learning principles, including intensive, repetitive, and task-specific practice to improve speech production.
A patient with spastic dysarthria has a strained voice and slow, effortful speech.What would be an appropriate intervention?
relaxation techniques, breathy/easy onset, yawn sign
Speech is breathy and phrases are unusually short. Which subsystem may be contributing?
Phonation and/or respiration
Following a unilateral stroke, a patient has mild facial weakness, slightly imprecise articulation, and otherwise normal resonance and phonation.
UUMN Dysarthria
Why might a clinician reduce cueing as treatment progresses?
To promote independence and generalization
Why might a clinician include both AMRs and SMRs during assessment?
To assess different aspects of speech motor control and aid differential diagnosis. (when SMRs are impaired could indicate coordination difficulties)
What distinguishes communication-oriented management from speaker-oriented treatment in dysarthria?
It involves environmental and listener strategies to enhance message transmission
You hear breathiness and hypernasality. What cranial nerves or speech subsystems deserve closer examination?
CN X (Vagus), velopharyngeal function, and the respiratory-phonatory subsystem
A patient demonstrates intermittent voice stoppages, variable articulatory distortions, and unpredictable changes in speech rate. Oral strength and range of motion are within functional limits
Hyperkinetic dysarthria
A patient performs perfectly during treatment but poorly at home. Which motor learning concept explains this?
Poor generalization/transfer of learning
A patient has perfectly normal AMRs but markedly impaired SMRs. What diagnosis rises on your differential?
AOS
A clinician begins treatment with simultaneous productions, then gradually fades visual and auditory models as the patient becomes more accurate. Which treatment approach is being used?
Integral Stimulation
The oral mechanism examination reveals tongue fasciculations. Which speech characteristic would you expect to accompany this finding?
Breathiness, hypernasality, imprecise articulation, or flaccid dysarthria characteristics