What is Dysarthria and Aphasia?
Dysarthria is a speech disorder while aphasia is a disorder of language both written and spoken. Both disorders are caused due to brain damage especially stroke. Speech is a process which involves bulbar muscles and the physical ability to produce words whereas through language, ideas and thoughts are spoken. In simple words, dysarthria is partial loss and aphasia is full loss of language. In this article we will discuss dysarthria vs aphasia, their symptoms, causes and treatment.
Dysarthria
Dysarthria is a motor speech disease results due to damage to neuromuscular conditions. These neuromuscular conditions are caused due to damages to brain like stroke, tumor, injury, Parkinson and Cerebral palsy etc. The person suffering from dysarthria have issues speaking therefore, it becomes difficult for them to make their words understand to others. However, An SLP i.e. speech and language test will tell whether you have dysarthria or not.
- Symptoms
Following are some of the main symptoms of dysarthria.
- Loud and Slurred speech.
- Lack of fluency and rhythm.
- Trouble moving lips and tongue.
- Breathy Tone.
- Monotone speech.
- Sometimes too slow speech like a whisper.
- Mumbled and robotic speech.
- Causes
Following are a few causes that result in dysarthria.
- Congenital.
- Brain Tumor.
- Injury to brain or head.
- Cerebral Palsy.
- Dementia(memory loss)
- Lyme.
- Parkinson.
- Huntington.
- Stroke.
- Multiple Sclerosis.
- Myasthenia Gravis.
- Muscular Dystrophy.
- Down Syndrome.
- Ataxia.
- Treatment
- Speech therapy.
- Self Exercise to strengthen muscles.
- Writing practice.
- Medicines.
- Cure
Dysarthria caused by medicines and poorly fitted dentures gets cured however, if dysarthria is caused by stroke or brain tumor then it may only get better through therapy. A good speech therapy helps improving the condition and not making it worse.
- Types
- Flaccid.
- Spastic.
- Ataxic.
- Hypokinetic.
- Hyperkinetic.
Aphasia
Aphasia means an impaired ability to speak and even understand words. It is caused due to a lesion of the dominant hemisphere and might as well also result in the ability of using gestures. Aphasia can also be mild in which a person finds difficulty to speak and write instead of complete inability. However, aphasia doesn’t mean that a person’s intellect or intelligence is affected. In addition, Aphasia can be diagnosed easily through some sensory and nerve function tests and cognitive and memory tests.
- Symptoms
Following are the symptoms of aphasia.
- Short and incomplete sentences.
- Inability to make others understand what they are saying.
- Inability to understand what others are saying.
- Struggle with repetition of words.
- Causes
Following are some of the diseases that cause dysarthria.
- Brain or head injury.
- Brain Tumor.
- Brain Surgery.
- Cerebral Hypoxia.
- Dementia.
- Muscular Dystrophy
- Concussion
- Epilepsy.
- Severe headaches.
- Progressive neurological conditions.
- Treatment
Speech therapy and medicines can help make this condition better and improve living standard of patients.
- Types
- Global.
- Broca
- Wernicke.
- Mixed Non-Fluent.
- Anomic.
- Primary Progressive.
Conclusion – Dysarthria vs Aphasia
Dysarthria and Aphasia are speech and language disorders. They can be congenital as well as result of complications caused by other diseases like stroke, brain tumor, Cerebral palsy, down syndrome, Muscular Dystrophy, Multiple Sclerosis etc. Speech therapy and medicines help cure these disorders and improve the condition of patients.
