Flaccid dysarthria results from damage to the lower motor neurons (LMN) or the peripheral nervous system (Hageman, 1997). The characteristics of flaccid dysarthria generally reflect damage to cranial nerves with motor speech functions (e.g., cranial nerves IX, X, XI and XII) (Seikel, King & Drumright, 2010). Lower motor neurons connect the central nervous system to the muscle fibers; from the brainstem to the cranial nerves with motor function, or from the anterior horns of grey matter to the spinal nerves (Murdoch, 1998). If there are lesions to spinal nerves and the cranial nerves with motor speech functions, it is indicative of a lower motor neuron lesion and flaccid dysarthria. Damage to lower motor neurons that supply the speech muscles is also known as bulbar palsy (Pena-Brooks & Hedge, 2007). Potential etiologies of flaccid dysarthria include spinal cord injury, cerebrovascular accidents, tumors or traumatic brain injury (Pena-Brooks & Hedge, 2007). Possible congenital etiologies of flaccid dysarthria include Moebius syndrome and cerebral palsy. Flaccid dysarthria can also arise from infections such as polio, herpes zoster, and secondary infections to AIDS (Pena-Brooks & Hedge, 2007). Additionally, demyelinating diseases such as Guilian-Barre syndrome and myotonic muscular dystrophy can also lead to flaccid dysarthria (Pena-Brookes & Hedge, 2007). The lower motor neuron lesion results in loss of voluntary muscle control, and an inability to maintain muscle tone. Fasciculations, or twitching movements, may occur if the cell body is involved in the lesion (Seikel et. al., 2010). The primary speech characteristics of flaccid dysarthria include imprecise consonant production, hypernasal resonance, breathiness, and harsh voice (...
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...re (CPAP). Plastic and reconstructive surgery,88(6), 959-969.
Liss, J.M., Kuehn D.P., & Hinkle, K.P. (1994). Direct training of velopharyngeal musculature. Journal of Medical Speech-Language Pathology, 2, 243-249.
McKeever S, Miller R (2002) Glossopharyngeal breathing to improve functional vital capacity and speech production in a patient with flaccid dysarthria. Journal Medical Speech Language Pathology. 10(4): 307–11
Murdoch, B. E. (Ed.). (1998). Dysarthria: a physiological approach to assessment and treatment. Nelson Thornes.
Pena-Brooks, A., & Hegde, M. N. (2007). 6. Assessment and treatment of articulation and phonological disorders in children. (pp. 364-365). Austin, Tex.: Pro-Ed.
Seikel, J. A., King, D. W., & Drumright, D. G. (2010). 12. Anatomy & physiology for speech, language, and hearing (4th ed., pp. 674-675). Australia: Thomson Delmar Learning.
The phonemic restoration phenomenon was first demonstrated by Warren (1970). He conducted an experiment on a number of listeners where he got them to listen to the sentence, “The state governors met with their respective legislatures convening in the capital city”. However, in the word “legislatures” a cough completely masked the medial “s”. Listeners stated hearing the masked phoneme. This showed that when phonemic restoration occurred, listeners were not able to identify the masking sound position in the sentence. What they received was unconsciously interpreted. In other words, the efficiency of phonemic restoration reached the extent that the listeners did not notice it. (Kashino, 2006). Amazingly, the phonemic restoration effect was not observed when “s” was masked with silence!
Disruption of this complex interaction of motor signals towards the formation of speech is known as dysarthria (2). It is sometimes confused with impairment resulting from injury to the "language areas" (1), illustrating the point that the process of producing language is multi-layered, and that it is often hard to tell what is what.
 Mild, chronic depression has probably existed as long as the human condition, although it has been referred to by various different names. The DSM-III replaced the term “neurotic depression” with dysthymic disorder--which literally means ‘ill-humored’-and it was added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 1980
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, is a degenerative disease affecting the human nervous system. It is a deadly disease that cripples and kills its victims due to a breakdown in the body’s motor neurons. Motor neurons are nerve cells in the brainstem and spinal cord that control muscle contractions. In ALS, these neurons deteriorate to a point that all movement, including breathing, halts. Muscle weakness first develops in the muscles of body parts distant from the brain, such as the hands, and subsequently spreads through other muscle groups closer to the brain. Such early symptoms as this, however, can hardly be noticed.
According to Talbot et al. (2010), Motor Neurone Disease, which is also known as MND, is when progressive degeneration occurs in the motor neurones of the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurones are nerve cells that control the muscles in the body. They also stated that as the progressive degeneration occurs of these muscles, messages to the muscles stop working which leads to the muscles then becoming weak and they begin to waste. The wasting of muscle usually begins in the arms and legs of the person who is suffering from Motor Neurone Disease. Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association (2014) stated that some patients suffering from Motor Neurone Disease can develop a weakness or wasting of the muscles in their face and throat. If this does occur, the patient with Motor Neurone Disease can have problems with swallowing, talking, chewing, walking, drinking and even breathing.
When a person begins to suffer from Guillain- Barre Syndrome their myelin sheath of their nervous system is being attacked and destroyed by the immune system (NINDS, 2011). The myelin sheath begins to lose its ability to transmit signals rapidly and affectively. Since signals are not getting transmitted to the brain fast enough, a person begins to notice fewer sensory responses from the rest of the body (NINDS, 2011). A person wouldn’t be able to tell right away or at all if an item they are touching is hot, cold, or causing pain. There also wouldn’t be good signal transmission from the brain to the rest of the body (NINDS, 2011). There would be signs of the muscles being unable to respond to the weakened or distraught signals they were receiving. Since the myelin sheath is responsible for transmitting the signals from a long distance, the upper and lower extremities would be the first to show signs of muscle dysfunction.
command in the rise of muscle tone is sent to the spinal cord from the nerves from the muscle itself, which are called the sensory nerve fibers. The muscles of the patient appear stiff and rather than create smooth and swift movement, appear rigid and jerky. When contracting or moving a muscle to create movement, some muscles are turned on, while others are turned off, making it extremely challenging to move normally. Spasticity, depending on severity, can greatly affects one’s ability to walk, stand, sit in the correct posture and even perform daily tasks such as bathe, get dressed, eat, write, and using the restroom. It can also have an impact on speech, causing the patient to have slow oral movements, slurred speech, and a tight or hoarse
Stahl, S., Duffy-Hester, A., & Stahl, K. (1998). Everything you wanted to know about phonics
... role of infant-directed speech with a computer model. Acoustical Society of America, 4(4), 129-134.
Initial symptoms are tremor of the hands, arms, legs, jaw, and face, bradykinesia or slowness of movement, rigidity or stiffness, and postural instability or impaired balance. Those are considered primary motor symptoms. Secondary motor symptoms include: Freezing or hesitation in their gate, micrographia or shrinking in handwriting, mask-like expression, and unwanted accelerations or movements that are too quick instead of too slow. Some others that patients may experience are stooped posture, dystonia, speech problems, difficulty swallowing, cramping, and
There are two main theories of Speech production, Spreading Activation Theory - SAT (Dell, 1986: Dell & O’Seaghdha, 1991) and Word- Form Encoding by Activation and Verification – WEAVER++ (Levelt et al., 1989: 1999).
Studdert-Kennedy, M. and Shankweiler, D. (1970). Hemispheric Specialization for Speech Perception. Journal of Acoustical Society of America, 48. 579-592.
English and German share some of the articulatory settings, although others are very different. It will be difficult to develop high levels of proficiency in the pronunciation of English with the previously develop articulatory settings of German. This is because of the differences i...
...ext, animation, graphic, and voice over to give the best impact in learning English phonetics and phonology. The content of the course is based on the textbooks: English Pronunciation in Use by Martin Hewings and Phonetics and Phonology by Peter Roach. The topic covers in this courseware are (1) Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology (2) The Articulators (3) Places of Articulation (4) Manners of Articulations.
Vowels are represented by five letters and twenty phonemes that are divided into seven short vowels e.g. /e/ and /ʌ/, five long vowels e.g. /u:/ and /a:/, and eight diphthongs /ɪə/ and /ʊə/. Vowels are sounds produced by complete passage of air through the vocal tract, with no complete closure or stricture. Unlike consonants, all vowel phonemes are voiced. When dividing words into syllables, each syllable must contain a vowel and it’s called the nucleus of the syllable. Similarly to consonants, vowel phonemes are described according to the height and place of the tongue in the mouth and the shape of the lips. Firstly, tongue height in the mouth is divided into : high position as in the word keen /i:/, middle position as in the word girdle /ɜː/, and low position as in the word cart /a:/. Secondly, tongue position in the mouth is divided into : front position as in the word sheep /i:/, central position as in the word girl /ɜː/, and back position as in the word pool /u:/. Thirdly, lips positions are recognized as rounded as in the word horse /ɔː/ and unrounded as in the word ship