Take this Test to Check Your Articulation

Many different conditions can cause speech impairments, including, but not limited to, a stroke, a traumatic brain injury (TBI), a brain tumor, a neurodegenerative illness such as Parkinson’s disease or multiple sclerosis, or a congenital diagnosis such as cerebral palsy or muscular dystrophy. However, the most common cause for motor speech impairment is a stroke.

Speech is affected by motor planning, or the brain’s ability to program the movements needed for speech to occur. Motor planning difficulties include apraxia, the inability to translate thoughts into intentions, or dysarthria, slow and slurred speech due to muscle weakness.

If any of the above impairments apply to you or a loved one, continue reading to test your speech. Grab a friend and see if they can help you with this assessment.

  1. Time yourself saying “Ahh” for as long as you can without straining your voice.

A healthy adult female should be able to sustain this for 15-25 seconds, while a healthy adult male should be able to sustain this for 25-35 seconds. If your time is below the normal range, you may have an impairment with your breath support for your speech, meaning you’re not efficiently and effectively managing the breath from your lungs to produce voice.

2. Do about 20 repetitions of saying “puh,” “tuh,” and “kuh” as fast as you can. Afterward, put all of those sounds together to say “puh tuh kuh” about 10 times as fast as you can.

This should be challenging, but doable for most people. If this is very challenging for you, there could be a motor-planning impairment in your speech that makes it difficult to coordinate certain sounds. People with motor-planning impairments are likely to make errors with increased complexity of sounds such as words with multiple syllables, longer phrases or sentences, or repeating the same word with inconsistent errors during the production of each word.

3. Practice your favorite tongue twister, such as “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, how many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?”

Once again, this should be challenging, but doable for most people. Are you able to say this like you used to, or do you feel yourself stumbling over your words? If this is the case, it may be time to consult with a speech-language pathologist to fully assess your speech.  

Consulting with a professional will help determine what is normal and what you can do to help compensate for any impairments.

To schedule a consultation with a speech-language pathologist at Sheltering Arms Institute, please call (804) 764–1000 or visit www.shelteringarmsinstitute.com/contact-us.

Share This Post:

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
RehaBlog

More Posts

The Interdisciplinary Approach in Rehabilitation to Multiple Sclerosis Care

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) affects nearly 1 million people in the United States alone. MS is an immune-mediated disease in which the body’s immune system attacks the myelin insulation that surrounds the nerves in the central nervous system. This damage causes widespread symptoms varying in severity, including fatigue, weakness, sensation loss, visual impairments, and walking and balance impairments. These symptoms of MS can impact someone’s mobility, quality of life, ability to work and provide for their family, relationships, and community participation. Because these symptoms can impact so many aspects of a person’s life, a rehabilitative care team should consist of multiple disciplines that work together to provide a collaborative, all-encompassing care plan, called interdisciplinary care.

9 Ways to Improve Sleep After a Concussion

After a concussion, there are a lot of common misconceptions about sleep. Mainly, is it safe to sleep following this mild traumatic brain injury? The answer is yes – it is okay to sleep after a concussion! This misconception stems from an out-of-date recommendation to wake the person up every hour to check on them. However, that is only if there is concern about the risk for a brain hemorrhage or bleed that wasn’t immediately apparent.

Clinical research scientist

Five Reasons to Participate in Research

During my participation in a clinical trial, I was able to learn first-hand about the process surrounding medical discoveries. I also gained an understanding of how to advocate for my health and learned to ask more questions about the risks involved in different medical treatments. Participation in research was incredibly beneficial to me personally. To help you learn more about research participation, we’ve compiled a list of 5 reasons to participate in research.

How to Measure Exercise Intensity

Target heart rate (HR) is a great way to measure exercise intensity to get the most out of your workout. For most people, it provides an accurate way to measure the safety of an activity in relation to the percentage of your maximum heart rate. However, for some people, because of several medications that regulate HR (such beta blockers) or the availability to acquire a device that monitors HR, using HR alone to measure exercise intensity can be challenging.

How to Maximize Physical Therapy Visits from Insurance

As a new year begins, so do new health insurance deductibles and benefits. It’s important to be aware of your healthcare expenses to plan for the year ahead. For those seeking physical rehabilitation services, including physical therapy, it’s important to remember that health insurance may not cover unlimited sessions. Understanding how to make the most of your visits covered by insurance is key to maximizing your benefits. Read on to learn how you can get the most out of your therapy visits while extending the time spent on your recovery to achieve your goals.

Start your Journey

Learn more about Sheltering Arms Institute

Contact a specialist at Sheltering Arms Institute to learn more about how you can gain more freedom in your everyday life.