Dysarthria (ECPG)

- Executive Summary

The scope of the guidelines in the diagnosis and management of   Dysarthria

1. Any subject with speech difficulty should undergo:

a). History taking ( strong recommendation)

b). Auditory perceptual assessment (APA) (strong recommendation)

c). Examination that includes both neurological examination and ENT examination ( strong recommendation)

2. By the end of this assessment battery, dysarthria by its type and severity should be diagnosed with exclusion of other speech disorders. ( conditional recommendation )

3. Rehabilitation will start tailoring a therapeutic plan that may include all the aspects (in blue rectangles) or some of them according to the most prominent speech parameters affecting the speech intelligibility of the patient.(strong recommendation)

4. For every aspect, your therapeutic trials may succeed or fail, and accordingly measurement of the outcome is of value every three months. Work with the patient in more than one aspect at the same time and not one of them at a time.( conditional recommendation)

5. Resonance therapy through training ,however, if failed shift to obturator.( conditional recommendation)

6.  Articulation, respiration, phonation and prosody have many  techniques to correct them.(conditional recommendation)

7. Prognosis and therapy termination is determined when patient’s satisfaction is reached and when the Auditory perceptual assessment showed correction and elimination of difficulties. (conditional recommendation)

8. Augmentative and alternative communication methods should be considered in case achieved   progress is unsatisfactory, particularly in patients having severe difficulties. (strong recommendation )