Motor speech treatment in flaccid dysarthria: a case report

ABSTRACT

This study described the motor speech bases assessment and therapeutic process conducted through the hierarchy of motor speech treatment in a 45-year-old person, male, that has flaccid dysarthria caused by stroke. This patient received speech-language therapy after three years since the brain lesion, during 25 weekly sessions that occurred in 8 months. Speech-language assessments were applied before and after therapy, as well as a specific evaluation after each base motor treatment. Therapy obeyed the hierarchy of motor speech treatment, initiating with respiratory and resonance rehabilitation, following by prosodic therapy, phonatory treatment and, lately, articulatory treatment. The patient showed improvements in all motor speech bases, acquiring adequacy in respiratory support and resonance during the speech, improvements in prosody, more articulatory precision, and vocal stability. Beyond that, about patient self-perception about therapeutic progressions, he related reduction of the dysarthria impacts in his life quality. In this way, the benefits of speech-language therapy in dysarthria had been evidenced, mainly at following the proposal of the hierarchy of motor speech treatment structure. Results allowed us to conclude that an appropriate therapeutic approach may offer benefits even years after cerebral lesion.

Keywords:
Dysarthria; Articulation disorders; Neuromuscular diseases; Speech therapy; Adults