What is dysarthria? 5 things to help improve your speech.

Dysarthria is a speech difficulty where speaking clearly becomes difficult because of a brain injury (such as a stroke) or because of any type of damage to the nerves that help you talk (such as head and neck cancer and cerebral palsy). When you know what you want to say, but "your mouth" isn't doing what you want it to do can be extremely frustrating. Sometimes people describe it as having a "slurred speech." AND it is helpful to know that working with a speech language pathologist (SLP) on strategies to improve your speech clarity based on your specific conditions will likely help you recover more and faster.

Talking to Your Loved Ones - An Adult Speech Therapy Goal

I'd like to share some of the tried-and-true helpful and easy to follow strategies I personally use in therapy for my clients with you. However, getting a formal evaluation with a speech therapist whether through your insurance or by a private practice SLP like me will always be recommended because everyone's situation can be very different and your treatment plan should always be tailored to your specific needs.

1. Slow down - by slowing down, you are allowing your tongue, mouth, teeth, velum, and body to have time to process and move the way they should to improve your speech.

2. Exaggerate - I tell my clients or students to imagine they are performing on a stage and the listeners are like the audience sitting far away from the stage. They must exaggerate (e.g., opening up the mouth more) for the audience to "hear (and see)" their speech (and face) to increase communicate success.

3. Breathe - Our speech is created from the movement of our articulators (e.g., tongue, mouth) and from having good breath support. Without sufficient air or breath support, our speech becomes inaudible or hard to be heard. So remember to work on your posture and breathing while working on dysarthria is crucial. Your speech therapist can help you address this difficulty when they assess your speech.

4. Mirror work - use a mirror or the camera on your phone/tablet when you practice your speech therapy exercises can give you feedback. You can see how your face, mouth, tongue and body are moving and adjust them as you are able to help increase your speech intelligibility/speech clarity. Don't forget to record some of your practices from the beginning so you can see your own progress. Research has shown that people who have seen themselves succeed in a task, they are more likely to succeed again.

5. A calm and quiet environment - To communicate successfully, both the speaker and the listener have important roles on their own. Sitting face to face, slowing down the speech rate, talking in a quiet and clam environment, and asking for clarifications can all be good practices when talking to someone who experiences difficulty with speech.

Besides speech therapy strategies, there are devices (augmentative devices/AAC) that can be used to communicate with and without the user's speech production when communicating clearly is extremely challenging. For example, the text to speech function on smart phones, a writing pad, an app called Voiceitt are all devices/applications to help you communicate.

The speech therapy tips to target clearer speech and possible devices to use in communication discussed above are just few of the speech therapy strategies or solutions your speech therapist can use for you as needed. Talk to your doctor for a speech therapy referral or talk to your speech therapist about your specific experiences and needs can support you in your recovery!

Here are more resources that you may find helpful after brain injuries:

• American Stroke Association - general information and resources after stroke

• National Aphasia Association - difficulties with communication

• Brain Injury Association of America - general information and resources after a brain injury

• National Library Service - a free library service for people who have visual and hearing difficulties

• Stroke Recovery foundation - general information and resources after stroke

• Right Hemisphere Brain Damage - right brain injuries

If you would like to learn more about speech therapy and our in home and virtual private speech therapy settings, you can call/text us at 818.823.8022 or email us at hello@thechatroomtherapy.com.

We provide virtual speech therapy visits/telehealth visits in California, and in home services in Montrose, La Crescenta, La Canada, and Pasadena, CA areas.

We also provide speech therapy in Mandarin Chinese. 中文/國語語言治療

Vicki Chia Hui Lin, M.S., CCC-SLP

Founder, The Chat Room Therapy

Vicki is a California licensed and American Speech Language and Hearing Association certified speech language pathologist. She has extensive experience with both adults and children, with particular specialties in gender affirming voice therapy, adult voice disorders, post stroke or head and neck cancer related voice, communication, cognitive, and swallow difficulties. Vicki Chia Hui Lin, M.S., CCC-SLP

Founder, The Chat Room Therapy

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