Long-term treatment of severe dysarthria: a case study

This case study describes the long-term treatment and changing symptoms in a single subject with dysarthria secondary to basilar artery thrombosis. Initially, the subject was anarthric. Treatment efforts thereafter were directed toward modifying speech respiration, velopharyngeal function, articulatory precision, speech intensity, and speech intelligibility. A variety of treatment and measurement techniques are illustrated. The behavioral change resulting from each of the treatments was small. However, when combined, these small gains in conjunction with some neurological recovery resulted in significantly improved communication and quality of life for this subject. Implications for management of similar subjects are discussed.