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. In other words, it is a condition in which problems effectively occur with the muscles that help produce speech, often making it very difficult to pronounce words. It is unrelated to problems with understanding language (that is, dysphasia or aphasia), although a person can have both. Any of the speech subsystems (respiration, phonation, resonance, prosody, and articulation) 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 is from New Latin, dys- "dysfunctional, impaired" and arthr- "joint, vocal articulation".Neurological injury due to damage in the central or peripheral nervous system may result in weakness, paralysis, or a lack of coordination of the motor–speech system, producing dysarthria. These effects in turn hinder control over the tongue, throat, lips or lungs; for example, swallowing problems (dysphagia) are also often present in those with dysarthria. Cranial nerves that control the muscles relevant to dysarthria include the trigeminal nerves motor branch (V), the facial nerve (VII), the glossopharyngeal nerve (IX), the vagus nerve (X), and the hypoglossal nerve (XII). Dysarthria does not include speech disorders from structural abnormalities, such as cleft palate and must not be confused with apraxia of speech, which refers to problems in the planning and programming aspect of the motor–speech system.
Some of the most consistent abnormalities observed in patients with ataxia dysarthria are alterations of the normal timing pattern, with prolongation of certain segments and a tendency to equalize the duration of syllables when speaking. As the severity of the dysarthria increases, the patient may also lengthen more segments as well as increase the degree of lengthening of each individual segment.Common clinical features of ataxic dysarthria include abnormalities in speech modulation, rate of speech, explosive or scanning speech, slurred speech, irregular stress patterns, and vocalic and consonantal misarticulations.Ataxic dysarthria is associated with damage to the left cerebellar hemisphere in right-handed patients.Dysarthria may affect a single system; however, it is more commonly reflected in multiple motor–speech systems. The etiology, degree of neuropathy, existence of co-morbidities, and the individuals response all play a role in the effect the disorder has on the individuals quality of life. Severity ranges from occasional articulation difficulties to verbal speech that is completely unintelligible.Individuals with dysarthria may experience challenges in the following:

Timing
Vocal quality
Pitch
Volume
Breath control
Speed
Strength
Steadiness
Range
ToneExamples of specific observations include a continuous breathy voice, irregular breakdown of articulation, monopitch, distorted vowels, word flow without pauses, and hypernasality. Treatment
Articulation problems resulting from dysarthria are treated by speech language pathologists, using a variety of techniques. Techniques used depend on the effect the dysarthria has on control of the articulators. Traditional treatments target the correction of deficits in rate (of articulation), prosody (appropriate emphasis and inflection, affected e.g. by apraxia of speech, right hemisphere brain damage, etc. ), intensity (loudness of the voice, affected e.g.