The Best Dysarthria Speech Therapy Techniques and Exercises
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| Therapist having conversation with person who has dysarthria and modeling clear speech |
Many therapists want to know the best dysarthria speech therapy techniques and exercises to use in the clinic, office or for home health. Many believe they have to have a suitcase of materials which include workbooks, hand-out sheets, puzzles, games, written exercises, reading exercises and the like. My advice to them? PUT THEM AWAY!
One of the errors instructors at the Universities make is to train therapists to do pre-programmed exercises, workbooks and the like. These methods are often rigid, non-contextural and outright boring!
So Here is My Advice to Therapists who want to know Dysarthria Speech Therapy Techniques and Exercises for Better Speaking
1. Sit down with them and have a conversation.
2. Listen carefully to their speech in conversation, since it is while the person is talking you will find where the speaking difficulties are.
3. Ask yourself what you would do if that was YOU whom you were talking with. What would you do if you were them?
4. Therapists, practice talking and mimicing the person with dysarthria so that you can feel and hear how his/her speaking is so different from your own.
5. Therapists, next change that style of talking (in yourself) so that it would be much clearer and understood.
6. When you know what YOU would have to do to make the speech more understandable and clear, present that model to the person you are speaking with in a 2 or 3 word phrase.
7. Stay at only short phrases until the person with dysarthria shows ease of speaking in the new way at the 2-3 word level.
8. Then gradually increase the number of words you are stimulating until he or she can converse with you in stimulated conversation.
The Systematic Approach for Dysarthria Speech Therapy Techniques and Exercises is all spelled out in The Teaching of Talking Training Course
