Effect of oromotor exercises on energy and duration of anterior voiceless non-emphatic consonants in spastic dysarthria

ABSTRACT

Treatment of dysarthric children may rely on speech therapy [direct therapy] or on oro-motor exercises [indirect therapy]. Some authors believe that therapy is more effective when both methods are applied. Others believe that application of oro-motor exercises provide little or no beneficial effect. The aim of this work was to study the effect of oromotor therapy on the energy and duration of anterior non-emphatic voiceless Arabic consonants prior to and after therapy in order to obtain a more objective view about the progress achieved by therapy which would aid in selecting the most appropriate line of therapy for such patients. Subjects and methods: Thirty dysarthric children and fifteen normal children of both gender participated in this study. The dysarthric children were randomly divided using a customized random sample into 2 groups. One group received speech therapy while the other group received speech therapy, in addition to, oromotor exercises. Spectrographic analysis of the anterior voiceless non-emphatic consonants /f/, /thea/, /t/, and /s/ was performed prior to and after therapy. Spectrographic analysis for the normal group was done during the study. The study extended over a period of about 9 months. Spectrographic analysis revealed reduction in the duration of consonants and increase in their energy values for both patients group with more significant improvement when oromotor exercises were applied the application of oromotor exercises in conjunction with speech therapy can aid in improving the production of anterior non-emphatic voiceless consonants in dysarthric patients. 1-Considering oromotor therapy while planning any speech rehabilitation program for dysarthric patients as it can be beneficial in some patients. 2- Thorough objective analysis of other phonemes and follow up for longer duration to detect any subclinical improvement achieved by different lines of therapy which would help in selecting the most effective and rapid ones in improving the speech of dysarthric patients