“Dysarthria Health Article: Spastic Dysarthria”
The information presented in this website was written by a credible author named Dr. James Paul Dworkin that works at Harper University Hospital. The author did not include any peer-reviewed information or citations from journals or verifiable sources in his writing. Instead, he provided book references that the reader can examine. The author targeted the webpage towards the general public. The information quality was written at the appropriate level for its intended audience because of its organized and user-friendly format. After examining the information, the reader has the opportunity to examine other tabs that discuss Dysarthria as a whole and various other interesting topics (ex: demographics, prognosis, etc). Links can be found on this website that allow you to link the information to Twitter or Facebook. Other links allow you to examine advertisements, health related website topics, and the publishing company where the information was received from "Gale Cenage Learning." If the reader clicks on the “Gale Cenage Learning” website, he or she is able to find both an “about us” link & a “contact us” link. These links stated the company’s mission statement, phone number & fax number, the days of the week & times that the company is open, & the specific addresses for each department of the company. The overall rating for this webpage is excellent. The information is written at the appropriate level for its intended audience & could give any reader that is interested in the topic a vast amount of knowledge. Also, the user-friendly format makes it easy to search through & examine the different sections of Dysarthria. Even though certain advertisements or links were not necessary, there were other links that would be beneficial for the reader to examine.
Amanda's Overall Rating: Excellent
This website is a free social networking site for doctors and medical students. While it is primarily meant for professional networking, it also provides video clips about various disorders as well as educational and scientific research that members of the site can comment on and discuss. It is created by and accessed by doctors, so it should be a reliable site.
The information on the site is by doctors, for doctors. On the spastic dysarthria site, there is a two-minute video of a doctor with a patient with spastic dysarthria, who is asked to describe a picture and read a paragraph. There is also a short paragraph describing SD. The comments cannot be accessed unless you are a member of the site. Although the information is reliable, there is not very much available.
The intended audience is medical professionals. The comments are meant to share experiences and knowledge. I tried to “join” the site to see if SLPs qualified as members. There is no option for our field, but it is possible to select “other”, so there seems to be a loophole in the “doctors only” policy.
There are a few hyperlinks to other neurology video clips, or about the organization, but other than that all of the links are advertisements. To contact the organization, you must sign in, which I found to be rather strange. There is no contact information whatsoever provided to non-members. This site has reliable information, but is not useful to anyone outside the medical community.
http://www.cslot.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=35&Itemid=65
This website contains a search box in which you can search different disorders and syndromes. It provides etiology on dysarthria, specifically spastic and flaccid. It explains how damage to the upper motor neurons can result in spastic dysarthria. These are the neurons that run from the brain to the spine. Spastic dysarthria mean too much tone and involves muscle rigidity. The website also goes into specific details on how spastic dysarthria can specifically affect speech functions. This is due to a slow moving tongue, and poor muscle control of the other articulators. There is also disruption in vocal quality, causing harshness and low pitch.
The website has a well-organized menu for its visitors to follow, which is displayed across the top of the page, as well as the right side bar. The menu allows its visitors to visit a child area, giving milestones and programs that they provide for the youth in speech care. There is also an adult page that describes the treatment in speech that is individualized for the specific needs of the adult client. You can also contact the professionals by email or phone.
The information displayed on dysarthria is found in the adult menu, along with other disorders. In discussing dysarthria, they talk about the causes (damage to specific areas of the brain) and also the symptoms. They mention all of the different types of dysarthrias, and also conditions which are paired with and sometimes caused by dysarthria (such as Parkinson’s Disease).
Stacy's Overall Rating: Excellent