“Therapy Approaches for Spastic Dysarthria”
The information presented in this website was written by a credible author named Dr. Patrick Coppens that works at Plattsburg State University. He has various degrees, teaches courses at Plattsburg State University, and has worked on numerous publications. This webpage was designed to provide and discuss two therapy techniques known as the traditional approach and the oral motor approach. These two therapy approaches are examined as to whether or not they can be used to treat clients who suffer from Spastic Dysarthria. The author used references that were credible & detailed about the topic. The webpage is targeted towards speech language pathologists that can expand their knowledge when working with their clients. For many speech language pathologists, the text would be very simple to read due to prior knowledge & the chosen words that the author used. Because of this, the author could have written at a more formal level. Although, the information is appropriate for the year it was created (2004), the information can be viewed as outdated. Aside from the authors input, the website as a whole includes “our company” & “contact us” links in the upper right hand corner. These links stated the websites mission statement, address, phone number, & a consumer correspondence. There are also links that allow you to link the information to Twitter, Facebook, & sign up for a membership. Although, these links do not lead back to the same place, they do not lead you to other trusted & reputable sources. The links are targeted towards the promotion of the website. The overall rating for this webpage is good because they used a knowledgeable author, text that did not contradict itself, & credible references. This webpage was not rated as excellent because the information is outdated and the links were solely used for promotional purposes.
Amanda's Overall Rating: Good
Treatment Website
http://www.speech-therapy-on-video.com/dysarthria.html
This website describes dysarthria as an articulation disorder due to muscle weakness, disrupting the functions of jaws lips tongue and palate. They discuss how speech is main function that is disturbed due to dysarthria. The ability to combine the functions of breathing, articulating, and voicing, is what is impaired when a person has dysarthria. In discussing spastic dysarthria they focus specifically on the speech impairments, such as the difficulty in articulating consonants. They also discuss how the speech quality is strained and very monotone. The website then goes on to list therapy techniques and suggestions in order to improve a person with dysarthria’s abilities.
This website offers a side menu bar which directs contains direct links to purchase some of their therapy improvement techniques on video for both adult and child clients. There are also links to specific disorders including, expressive and receptive aphasia, apraxia, dysarthria, oral motor exercises, and stroke. Involved with their information on strokes is also links to warning signs, brain plasticitiy, and types of stroke. All of which are important to us as clinicians, and could be helpful for clients who are not familiar with these areas. There is also a link in the side menu for “speech terms” in which they describe in easier terms what certain speech terms mean, such as diadochokinesis, and aspiration. This could definitely be useful for a potential client who is having trouble understanding exactly what all the medical professionals are telling them about their own body and abilities.
Although this website has received audience by members of our profession at ASHA, I feel that the information displayed was very basic and not too informative or detailed. The information specifically relating to causes and symptoms of a disorder focused specifically on speech abilities and did not provide and general understanding of the overall inabilities. This website is client friendly and would be helpful to a viewer who is not in the medical profession.
Stacy's OVERALL RATING – POOR
This website gains it’s information through a network of authors and content contributors.
This website describes dysarthria as neurogenic speech disorder that is caused by damage to not only the peripheral and central nervous systems, but also the pathways leading to them. This damage can a loss of muscle coordination and control, especially of the speech mechanisms, depending on what areas were affected by the damage. They briefly describe some diseases that may cause or come in accordance with dysarthria. They also discuss the different types of dysarthria, including spastic. They specifically mention that spastic dysarthria is caused by damage to bilateral upper motor neurons. They mention that the symptoms relating to spastic dysarthria are not as mild as those relating to flaccid dysarthria. Spastic dysarthria causes difficulty in producing speech sounds, in particular, consonants. There is also difficulty in breathing and voicing. The website then briefly discusses how therapy (esp speech therapy) can provide useful techniques in helping to live with these symptoms.
This website provided links in it’s etiology which will bring you to a separate page that can lead into further detail about the causes of dysarthria in children and adults. There are also links to all the relating diseases mentioned in their explanation of dysarthria. During the “treatment” portion of this website, there are also links including if a viewer wanted to learn more about speech pathology or sign language. The side menu bar is easy to navigate and provides links to all the linked text during the etiology and treatment.
Although this website seems to have a lot of useful and accurate information, I felt it was a bit brief and really didn’t help its viewers to gain a true understanding of spastic dysarthria.
Stacy's OVERALL RATING - FAIR
After reviewing the webpage, http://total-health-care.com/man-health/dysarthria.htm, I found this site to barely meet its claim to provide information on symptoms and treatments of common ailments. As I examined the webpage, I was surprised at the limited amount of information it offered on the topic of spastic dysarthria. Its description on the etiology of this disorder was limited in comparison to the two previous webpages I reviewed. It only had, literally, two sentences describing the etiology of the disorder and the only three embedded links for further information led to minimally related topics. The links led to a site for the definition of spinal cord, another to multiple sclerosis, and the third to myasthenia gravis.
I found the webpage to be extremely ill-designed. It contained an inordinate amount of advertising interspersed in 3-4 columns of distracting information. It had such a large number of different fonts, colors, and pop-ups as you scrolled down the page, that it made it difficult to focus on any information at all. Given the limited information and simplicity of terms it does give, it is obviously intended for the general public. But even for the ‘general public’, the information provided is sparse and inadequate. It did not offer any credible resources to help further one’s research on the etiology of this disorder. None of the links nor resources mentioned were verifiable nor very useful.
The ‘Contact Us’ link led me to a webpage requested my name and email which I provided with a request for further information on spastic dysarthria, but I have not yet received a response other than the immediate “thank you for your interest….we value your feedback” response.
Elisa's Overall Rating: Very Poor