Speech-Language Pathology Paper

Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) working in the medical setting are typically members of rehabilitation teams, who work with individuals who have suffered from an illness, disease, or injury that may result in neurological deficits affecting speech, language, and/or cognition. Specifically, when working with the adult population, SLPs frequently assess and treat individuals diagnosed with a motor speech disorder called dysarthria. There are many types of dysarthria that can be characterized by deficits in strength, speed, range of movement, steadiness, tone, and overall accuracy (Duffy, 2013). Therefore, it is important that SLPs have an understanding of the neurological system, prominent characteristics, and know a variety of therapy
When examining weakness, professionals may choose to complete subjective measures, objective measures, or a combination of the two in order to thoroughly describe weakness and its characteristics to assist in the diagnostic and treatment planning process. One way of subjectively describing weakness that is commonly part of speech-language evaluations is an oral mechanism examination. There are a variety of oral mechanism examinations that an SLP can complete, ranging from informal measures such as checklists, to formal measures such as the Oral Speech Mechanism Screening Examination (OSMSE). Regardless of the method used, all oral mechanism examinations evaluate the oral structure, non-speech oral motor function, and speech motor functions, which are essential when describing the location, degree, and impact of weakness on the oral structure and motor functioning (McCauley & Strand, 2008). Professionals may also use objective measures to describe weakness by analyzing specific patterns of weakness and defining them according to 10 different patterns described by Statland et al. (2015). Statland et al. (2015) stated that when
There are many types of motor speech disorders, however, weakness is commonly associated with certain types of dysarthria. Specifically, researchers studying various dysarthria types have found that weakness is strongly associated with the diagnosis of flaccid dysarthria (Boone, McFarlane, Von Berg, & Zraick, 2014). In fact, while researchers Murdoch and Chenery (1990) performed a case study to investigate structural changes in the brain as a result of radiation to reduce brain tumors, they gathered much information to support how weakness in flaccid dysarthria can affect speech intelligibility. In the study, a 39 year-old-woman was evaluated after having radiation and surgery to remove a tumor within the pituitary fossa (Murdoch & Chenery, 1990). After radiation, the family reported deterioration in the woman’s speech as they stated that she had become much harder to understand. Hence, a speech evaluation was conducted in which the researchers discovered that the woman had flaccid dysarthria classified by slow tongue movements, reduced elevation of the velum resulting in hypernasality, poor respiratory support, and imprecise articulation as a result of weakness (Murdoch & Chenery, 1990). These findings were preceded by a neurological evaluation that found damage to the Xth cranial nerve (Murdoch & Chenery, 1990). This