Hypokinetic Dysarthria and Hyperkinetic dysarthria are both neuromotor speech disorders. They are both associated with damage to the Basal Ganglia. In defining the word Hypokinetic, Hypo means “lack of” and kinetic means “movement”, forming the definition of a lack of movement. A person with Hypokinetic Dysarthria will show less movement, as seen throughout the speech musculature. In contrast Hyperkinetic Dysarthria means excessive movements of the speech mechanism. While someone with Hyperkinetic dysarthria will exhibit signs of involuntary and excessive movements, a person with Hypokinetic Dysarthria show signs of having less movement. In this paper I will define each dysarthria, discuss 349-350). The signs and symptoms of a person with Hyperkinetic Dysarthria are, imprecise consonants, variable speaking rate, prolonged speech segments and pauses, harsh voice quality, distorted vowels, variable loudness, and voice interruptions (Murdoch p. 178). In evaluating Hypokinetic and Hyperkinetic Dysarthria a Speech Language Pathologist will gather a comprehensive history on the client, request the client’s medical history and get an idea of the course of the disorder (acute onset, progressive worsening etc.). The SLP will also conduct and assess conversational speech and reading. This is useful for evoking the many errors of vowel prosody. The SLP will also assess a connected speech sample. These can be a good tool for detecting short rushes of speech. Also will conduct and assess AMR’s and SMR’s (Diadochokinetic and Sequential Motion Rates), this can highlight articulation errors, including consonant productions, variable rates of articulation, and the blurring of syllables. The SLP will also assess possible respiratory, phonatory, resonance, articulation, and prosodic problems (Pena-Brooks Hedge p. 351-356). There are many tests that can be administered when evaluating Dysarthria, a few of them are as follows, Oral Peripheral Examination,
