Definition
Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder caused by generalized weakness to the oral musculature that occurs as a result of damage to the central and/or peripheral nervous system (Duffy 1995; Freed 2000; Vinson 2007; Zemlin 1998). This damage may occur as a result of stroke, head injury, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, or other brain injury (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association n.d.; Freed 2000). As a consequence of oral musculature weakness, the speech of individuals with dysarthria is slow and labored, and their articulation is imprecise (Freed 2000; Zemlin 1998). Other areas of speech may also be affected including respiration, voicing, and prosody (Duffy 1995).
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ASHA. (n.d.) Dysarthria. In American-speech-language-hearing-association speech disorders. Retrieved 5 Jan 2011 from http://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/language_speech.htm
Duffy, J. R. (1995). Motor speech disorders: Substrates, differential diagnosis, and management. St. Louis: Mosby.
Freed, D. (2000). Motor speech disorders: Diagnosis and treatment. San Diego: Singular.
Vinson, B. (2007). Language disorders across the lifespan (2nd ed.). Clifton Park: Thomson Delmar Learning.
Zemlin, W. R. (1998). Speech and hearing science: Anatomy and physiology (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
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Ellawadi, A.B. (2017). Dysarthria. In: Volkmar, F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_1664-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_1664-3
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