People suffering from Dysarthria have speech which is usually slurred (unclear) and produced with great difficulty. The speech is also difficult to understand. This disease may cause problems like controlling the loudness and rhythm of the speech. It is usually caused by paralysis or weakness. Inability to align the mouth’s muscles could also be a cause for this disorder. The symptoms of this disorder are:
- Mumbling Quality Speech at Rapid Rate: This symptom is found in people having hyperkinetic dysarthria. Such people have very less control over their jaw muscles and speak at a high rate which sounds like the person is mumbling.
- Limited Movements of Tongue and Jaw: People suffering from Spastic Dysarthria have very limited movements of their jaws. They suffer from pain in their jaws as well as their tongue and lips. The movement of their tongue and jaws are quite limited.
- Abnormal Intonation: Another symptom of people suffering from dysarthria disorder is their rhythm while in a conversation. When speaking long sentences, their intonation (rhythm) tends to break. This might be understandable to some and not to others.
- Different Voice Quality:When speaking among a group or on the telephone, the voice quality of the person with the disorder constantly undersgoes a change. It sometimes might sound a bit stuffy and nasal at other. The listener has a hard time understanding.
- Breathiness: It is a symptom found in people suffering from spastic dysarthria. The person, while speaking shows signs of breathlessness or breathes heavily.
- Chewing and Swallowing with Difficulty: Since the jaw muscle movements are limited, the patient feels strenuous while chewing or swallowing food. He/she feels painful when opening or closing his/her mouth.
- Slurred Speech: A person suffering from dysarthria speaks by combining words or omitting sounds. It feels that he is doing so in a hurry or carelessly. This form of speech is termed as slurred speech.
- Speaking softly: Dysarthria limits the voice or pitch of a person. This is because of the problems in the jaw muscle movement of the person. In this condition, the person’s voice cannot be made out as he/she speaks in whispers.
- Slow rate of Speech: This symptom is associated with people suffering from Spastic Dysarthria. This is the most common type of Dysarthria. This causes the jaw muscles to strain while any kind of movement. People suffering from Spastic Dysarthria make very slow rate conversations. Their jaw muscle movements are limited.
