Two Types of Acquired Speech Difficulty in Adults – What You Need to Know?

When you think of speech difficulties, the first image that comes to your mind is children who are trying to communicate effectively but are not getting to do so, for some or the other reason. But what about adults, who also face acute difficulty with their speech? Today, we will look at two of the main type of acquired speech difficulty in adults and what you need to know about them. The following pointers will give you a better perspective:

1. There Are Two Main Categories of Acquired Speech Difficulty – While acquired speech difficulty can be of various kinds, the categories are mainly divided into two. These include –
1.  Dysarthria – In this condition, the muscles of the face, the tongue, mouth, lips or jaws become weak and move slowly. This leads to difficulty in forming sounds clearly. As a result, the quality of the speech becomes slurred. It can also lead to difficulties in breathing. The voice can also become quitter than usual and the person will find it difficult to make himself/herself heard. It can range from mild to severe and there can be the need for consulting a therapist.
2. Apraxia – When it comes to Apraxia, there is no muscle weakness involved. In this condition, although the person knows what they want to say, they find it difficult to coordinate the movements of the tongue, mouth and lips to pronounce the words. Moreover, the speech errors are not consistent and each time, the word uttered is different. As a result, it is difficult to understand their speech.
2. The reasons - These acquired speech difficulties occur in adults even though they have already developed speech. These are caused due to the damage in the parts of the brain that controls the way we speak. More often than not, the reason behind this is – head injury, tumors, neurological disease and stroke.
3. Therapy can help – For both the conditions, a SLP or speech-language pathologist will be useful in assessing a person’s speech defects. They will be able to find out the levels of difficulty and how severe it is. For instance, you can opt for speech and language therapy in Dubai and get the best treatment for your loved ones.

These are the main pointers that you need to learn about acquired speech disorders in adults. For more such insightful write-ups, keep a tab on this space.