Re-thinking diagnostic classification of the dysarthrias: A developmental perspective

Abstract

Acquired childhood dysarthria (ACD) receives little attention in the research literature in contrast with the adult correlate of the disorder. Speech language pathologists working in this field find diagnosis and management challenging, arguably because there is no child-based dysarthria diagnostic classification. Clinicians are either dependent upon developmental speech models that are not specific to dysarthria and that ignore the neural basis of the disorder, or on adult-based neurobehavioural classification systems. Here we consider the necessary elements for developing a clinically useful and empirically driven diagnostic classification system for ACD. The paper is divided into 2 parts...