Abstract

Introduction. Patients with speech and language disorders have a lot of problems because of a lack of understanding from society and sometimes from the health service. Unlike aphasia, which is a disorder affecting the content of language, dysarthria is characterized by poor articulation of phonems, uncoordinated movements of speech musculature. Cognitive functions are saved. Aim of the study. Patient’s with traumatic dysarthria case study. The most important thing is the personal written account of problems of the return to everyday life.

Material and methods. A patient − initials A.O. was a logopaedic patient of Rehabilitation Institute of Academic Clinic Center in Gdańsk in 2002-2010. She has been suffering from speech and memory disorders with triparesis spastica caused by serious car accident in 1998. The research method was an individual case study. S. J. Robertson’s “Dysarthria Profile” was used. Results. A significant improvement according to “Dysarthria profile”: respiration – a 48% improvement, phonation – 23.64% by analogy, facial musculature – 38.75%, diadochokinesis – 56%, articulation – 60%, intelligibility/rate/prosody – 37.1%, communicative competence – 48%, eating and swallowing – 56%. Conclusions. Speech therapy should be adapted to the individual needs of the patient. In this case the best results were achieved in articulation improving – the smallest in phonation. The patient’s written account allows to understand the essence of dysarthria.

Adres: dr n. med. Maria Mielnik
Zakład Zarządzania w Pielęgniarstwie, Katedra Pielęgniarstwa GUMed
80-952 Gdańsk, ul. Dębinki 7
e-mail: marmi7@gumed.edu.pl