Las disartrias / The dysarthrias

The dysarthrias are a group of motor alterations of the speech as consequence of a neurological impairment that represent the 54% of the total of disorders that impair oral communication. Several types of dysarthrias could be determined according to the location of the causing lesion, the neurological mechanisms implicated in its generation, and functional characteristics of the speech. Clinical evaluation of the dysarthrias should include the clinical history, physical examination and the motor assessment of the speech. Prognosis is determined by the etiology and severity of the disorder. The objective of the treatment is to satisfy daily communicational needs of the patient in consideration to the underlying neurological condition (AU)

Dysarthric Bengali speech: a neurolinguistic study.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Dysarthria affects linguistic domains such as respiration, phonation, articulation, resonance and prosody due to upper motor neuron, lower motor neuron, cerebellar or extrapyramidal tract lesions. Although Bengali is one of the major languages globally, dysarthric Bengali speech has not been subjected to neurolinguistic analysis. We attempted such an analysis with the goal of identifying the speech defects in native Bengali speakers in various types of dysarthria encountered in neurological disorders. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted with 66 dysarthric subjects, predominantly middle-aged males, attending the Neuromedicine OPD of a tertiary care teaching hospital in Kolkata. MATERIALS AND METHODS: After neurological examination, an instrument comprising commonly used Bengali words and a text block covering all Bengali vowels and consonants were used to carry out perceptual analysis of dysarthric speech. From recorded speech, 24 parameters pertaining to five linguistic domains were assessed. The Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance, Chi-square test and Fisher's exact test were used for analysis. RESULTS: The dysarthria types were spastic (15 subjects), flaccid (10), mixed (12), hypokinetic (12), hyperkinetic (9) and ataxic (8). Of the 24 parameters assessed, 15 were found to occur in one or more types with a prevalence of at least 25%. Imprecise consonant was the most frequently occurring defect in most dysarthrias. The spectrum of defects in each type was identified. Some parameters were capable of distinguishing between types. CONCLUSIONS: This perceptual analysis has defined linguistic defects likely to be encountered in dysarthric Bengali speech in neurological disorders. The speech distortion can be described and distinguished by a limited number of parameters. This may be of importance to the speech therapist and neurologist in planning rehabilitation and further management.