Dysarthria

Dysarthria is a speech sound disorder resulting from neurological injury of the motor component of the motor–speech system and is characterized by poor articulation of phonemes. Those affected lack sufficient control of the muscles used for speech to pronounce words clearly. Dysarthria is unrelated to problems with understanding language, although a person can have both. Any of the speech subsystems can be affected, leading to impairments in intelligibility, audibility, naturalness, and efficiency of vocal communication. Dysarthria that has progressed to a total loss of speech is referred to as anarthria. The term dysarthria was formed from the Greek components dys- "dysfunctional, impaired" and arthr- "joint, vocal articulation".