Dysarthria in children and adults: causes and symptoms

Dysarthria is a speech disorder, namely, its pronunciation. It is based on insufficient innervation, or disruption of the nerves responsible for the connection of the organs of speech and the central nervous system. It can be the result of a violation of the blood circulation of the brain, infectious diseases of the CNR, tumoral processes in the brain or craniocerebral trauma. Dysarthria in children may appear due to birth trauma, congenital malformations, asphyxia during childbirth, hereditary diseases of the nervous system. Often, it is accompanied by movement disorders. In most cases (up to 85%), dysarthria in children accompanies infantile cerebral palsy.

The main manifestations of dysarthria are changes in the speed and rhythm of speech, distortion of its intonation, violation of voice formation, indistinct articulation. In addition, in most cases, there are other symptoms: swallowing and chewing disorders, emotional-volitional disorders, etc. The patient's speech is blurry and fuzzy, it is often difficult to disassemble. There are several degrees of dysarthria - based on the extent to which a person's speech is understandable to others. Wiped dysarthria in children or mild dysarthria in adults is characterized by some indistinctness and nasal (nasalization) of speech, which, however, is understandable to others. Neurological symptoms can be expressed indistinctly or even practically absent. Dysarthria in children and adult patients of moderate severity is characterized by a significant distortion of speech - so much that only the close people can fully understand the patient. Finally, a severe degree of dysarthria makes understanding human speech impossible, and in the most difficult cases it may even be completely absent (anarthria).

There are also several separate forms of dysarthria, based on the localization of the lesion of the motor apparatus of speech and the differentiation of neurological syndromes. Dysarthria, the symptoms of various forms of which are quite similar, is also manifested by violations of speech breathing, which lead to distortion of the intonational side of speech, strength and timbre of voice. Since cerebral lesions are diffuse in children with cerebral palsy, they usually have mixed forms of this disorder. For a clear differentiation of the forms of dysarthria, which is necessary for the selection of adequate treatment, consultation of several specialists (speech therapist, neurologist) is needed - after all the conclusion is made on the basis of both verbal and existing motor disorders.

There are bulbar, subcortical, cortical, cerebellar, pseudobulbar forms of dysarthria. The last, caused by paralysis or paresis of the nerves leading from the cerebral cortex to the nuclei of the sublingual, vagus, glossopharyngeal nerves, occurs in children most often. At the same time, not only speech, but also general motor skills is disrupted. The child also has problems with swallowing, hypersalivation is observed (excessive salivation). School children with dysarthria experience difficulties in learning to read and write. Typical mistakes in writing - the omission or replacement of some letters by others, partial, and often complete distortion of words, skipping of official parts of speech, incorrect word matching.

Treatment dysarthria - a fairly long process, calculated at least for several months, depending on the degree of its severity. Initially, it is usually carried out in a hospital for two to three weeks under the supervision of a neurologist, speech therapist, and sometimes a defectologist, then continues in an outpatient setting. In addition to speech sessions, while using physiotherapy, breathing exercises, reflexotherapy; Can be applied and medicinal methods of treatment. It should be understood: dysarthria in children can hardly be cured without the active participation of parents. They must deal with the child on a daily basis, strictly following the orders of specialists.