Lee Silverman Voice Treatment for Dysarthria - Article Example

AR Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT) for Dysarthria Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT) for Dysarthria Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder which occurs because of neurological deficits. Upper motor neuron lesion can result in dysarthria due to which individuals are not able to articulate their words to form a speech. It has been found that this neural defect is followed by several other effects which may harm the life of the individual including problems in respiration and phonation. Specific treatments have been designed to counter the problem of Dysarthria. A therapy in treating Dysarthria being widely used is known as Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT). Several researches have been conducted to find out the success rate of LSVT in treating dysarthria. An article by Brad H Story et al analyzes the effect of LSVT on the vowel articulation of dysarthric patients. The research by Story et al clearly shows that dysarthric patients suffer from articulation of vowels in their daily lives. People suffering from Parkinsons Disease are most probable to go through from such a situation. Parkinsons Disease and its effects are emphasized upon in the research article. It has been seen that LSVT produces marked improvement in patients suffering from voice and speech problems due to the onset of Parkinsons Disease. Story et al tells that patients suffering from dysarthria because of Parkinsons show improvement on the long term when treated with LSVT because there is no external cueing in the therapy. Vocal loudness is a primary factor which helps these patients to improve upon their tone as put by Story. The research article by Story et al took patients suffering from Parkinsons disease who had problems in their speech and voice and gave them a therapy of LSVT to find out its effect on the vowel articulation. The results clearly showed that LSVT helps in vowel articulation of patients and on the same hand also improves the respiratory and laryngeal functions of these patients. Similarly an article by Michael et al also analyzes patients with dysarthria and the effects that LSVT has on them. Michael et al in his article has almost the same results as that put down by Story et al about LSVT. The vowel articulation of patients improved in both the researches carried out by Michael et al and Story et al. Both Michael et al and Story et al in their articles have put forward the effects of vocal loudness as used in LSVT on the patients who are suffering from Parkinsons. Michael et al in his article has emphasized on the patients suffering from hypokinetic dysarthria whereas Story et al in his article has emphasized upon the patients suffering from Parkinsons Disease specifically. The study carried out by Michael et al was only done on a single patient and requires research on other patients to confirm its results whereas the study carried out by Story et al was conducted on a large population to find out the effect of LSVT on the patients. Thus it can be said that Story et al has build up a strong base to prove its results whereas Michael et al in his article has given a platform for future research on hypokinetic dysarthric patients. Similarly the article by Story et al had also taken controls of patients suffering from Parkinson’s Disease to find out the exact results of LSVT whereas the research by Michael et al only took one individual in the whole research without having any controls. Another research carried out by Wenke et al has showed the effectiveness of LSVT when it comes to the treatment of dysarthric patients following TBI or stroke. A total of 10 individuals were taken into the research to find out the effect of LSVT. LSVT was performed according to its normal procedure and then a team was designated to find out the effect of LSVT on the patients. The long term effects of LSVT on the patients were positive enough to last for six months as found out by the team. This research article again proved to be a platform for further research to find out the effectiveness of LSVT. Similarly another article by Cornwell et al introduces the option of LSVT for the effective treatment of patients suffering from non progressive dysarthria. Cornwell et al emphasizes that the treatment option of LSVT is not only designated for hypokinetic dysarthric patients but also for any patient who may be suffering from motor speech disorder. The effects of loudness on the articulatory system have been emphasized upon in the article by Cornwell et al. The traditional dysarthria therapy has been compared to the LSVT to find out the effectiveness of either in treating the patients. Cornwell et al found out that LSVT was effective in treating the patients with vowel articulation in their speech. The study by Cornwell et al like other studies of Story et al and Michael et al showed that patients with dysarthria improved in vowel spacing. But on the other hand it also showed that the rate of intelligibility also improved in the patients who went through LSVT. The effect of loudness on speech has also been emphasized by Cornwell et al as was emphasized by Story et al in his article. According to Cornwell et al improved vowel space helped to contribute to improve speech intelligibility which was not considered in the research of Michael et al or Story et al. Non progressive dysarthria has been emphasized upon in the article of Cornwell whereas Story et al in his article emphasized upon the patients who suffered from Parkinsons Disease. Similarly Michael et al in his article has emphasized on patients suffering from hypokinetic dysarthria. The article by Cornwell et al also like other articles has given a platform for other studies to be done to find out the effectiveness of LSVT on other motor speech disorders. All these articles together have in their own way provided useful information on the effectiveness of LSVT. The articles have significant differences in the patients that have been served in the researches but overall they all seem to show the effective nature of LSVT in treating the patients suffering from LSVT. Bibliography Top of Form Cannito, M. P., Suiter, D. M., Wolf, T., Chorna, L., Beverly, D., & Watkins, J. (January 01, 2006). Vowel Harmonic Amplitude Differences in a Speaker with Hypokinetic Dysarthria Before and After Treatment.Journal of Medical Speech-Language Pathology, 14,229-234. Top of Form Wenke, R. J., Theodoros, D., & Cornwell, P. (April 01, 2008). The short- and long-term effectiveness of the LSVT for dysarthria following TBI and stroke. Brain Injury, 22, 4, 339-352. Top of Form Wenke, R. J., Cornwell, P., & Theodoros, D. G. (June 01, 2010). Changes to articulation following LSVT and traditional dysarthria therapy in non-progressive dysarthria. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 12, 3, 203-220. Top of Form Sapir, S., Spielman, J. L., Ramig, L. O., Story, B. H., & Fox, C. (August 01, 2007). Effects of Intensive Voice Treatment (the Lee Silverman Voice Treatment [LSVT]) on Vowel Articulation in Dysarthric Individuals with Idiopathic Parkinson Disease: Acoustic and Perceptual Findings. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 50, 4, 899-912. Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Read More