What exactly is dysarthia?

mommyof4boys

That is now added to Christopher's alphabet soup.  So he now has a 16p11.2 duplication, delayed myelination, abnormal eye cup pallor, PDD_NOS, apraxia, severe communication disorder, phonological disorder, and dysarthia. From what I'm understanding it has to do with the oral motor and ability to speak clearly.  

OSULori

In short, its an incoordination or imprecision of the muscles of the speech mechanism (lips, tongue, jaw, etc) so your understanding isn't too far off.  Dysarthria, apraxia, and phonological disorders all have specific characteristics that allow for differential diagnosis...its pretty rare to see all three occur in one patient.  I have a couple of good charts that break down apraxia vs. phonological disorder vs. dysarthria saved at work, I'd be happy to send one to you when I get in tomorrow

mommyof4boys

Thank you! His geneticist wanted to add dysarthia and phonological disorders.

meldoo2002

I have to agree with Lori... dysarthria is a motor speech disorder characterized by muscle weakness making speech sound slurred or imprecise. BUT like Lori said it would not really be possible to have dysarthria, apraxia, and a phonological disorder all in the same diagnoses set.  They contradict each other in the underlying causes and symptoms.  Dysarthria is usually related to CP or some kind of specific muscle weakness.  

mommyof4boys

That's why I'm trying to figure it out.  I don't see his phonological processing as being an issue.  I see more the motor tone being the issue.  Honestly, I see this being more of a fit than the others.  When I asked about it specifically after seeing the CP as part of the information they said the 16p is the underlying reason.

meldoo2002

Phonological disorder and phonological processing are 2 different things.  A phonological disorder can affect speech sound production.  Instead of not being able to produce specific sounds its the rules of how they are using sounds that is incorrect.  Phonological processing is related to how they listen to and process information.  So it depends if they are talking about his speech production or learning to listen to/understand/and manipulate sounds.  

mommyof4boys

He can manipulate the sounds.  Sounds funny but he's better at it than Jon.  I looked at a website on apraxia kids and from their description phonological disorder doesn't fit.  He has a few things that fit in the verbal apraxia and mostly dysarthia.  He's 4 and still uses a sippy.  His oral tone is so stinking low! The speech pathologist is working on it with him.  She has these stick things she has him hold in his mouth and keep in position.  She said at first Chris couldn't do it and would cry at the sight.  Now he's able to hold them in part of the time.

OSULori

Low tone makes me think either apraxia or dysarthria-differential diagnosis between the two of these can be difficult.  What does his SLP think?  These diagnoses really should be coming from her instead of his geneticist....I have no doubt your doc knows their stuff, but an SLP is likely going to have more indepth knowledge about the different motor speech disorders, phonological disorders, and the differences between the three.

 

mommyof4boys

I'm going to be contacting the SLP about it.  She has talked to us about what she thinks but the school can't make a formal diagnosis which leaves me stuck.  I'm going to have to find an OOP SLP to do an assessment as well.

OSULori

That would probably be a good bet to get a definitive diagnosis.  Ideally, try to find an SLP with a strong background/comfort level with motor speech disorders-while we all recieve some degree of education/training during our grad school classes and externship assignments, some SLPs have more comfort and expertise in this area than others and you'll be more likely to get some sort of a more definitive dx.  Good luck!