DYSARTHRIA
- Keystone Therapy Services
- Feb 4, 2019
- 1 min read
Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder which affects the musculature and systems needed for producing speech. Individuals with dysarthria may exhibit too much muscle tone or too little. Muscles may be weak, paralyzed, or uncoordinated. Speech is slurred or is hard to understand. Dysarthria may affect systems of respiration, phonation, resonance, articulation, and prosody. Dysarthria affects children and adults. Conditions that can cause dysarthria are: stroke, traumatic brain injury, cerebral palsy, and multiple sclerosis.
(Reference: The Source for Dysarthria by Nancy B. Swigert)
I was diagnosed in 1996, before symptoms started. I am a pianist, suddenly unable to open my hands wide enough to get 8 keys. Nobody in my family had MS, nor my grandparents. Last year a cousin younger than me had MS, she is 40. I have primary progressive MS. I do not walk for the last 18 years, I was born in 1962. I have had 6 strokes and 1 heart attack. The Rebif (beta-1a) did very little to help me. The medical team did even less. After roughly five unending years of trauma in the family my MS developed into progressive. There have been many changes in the last 3 to 4 years. Many falls, many fractured bones,…