How can cerebral palsy affect a person’s speech?

Cerebral palsy can affect speech primarily through dysarthria, a condition where damage to the nervous system impairs the voluntary movements required for speaking. Because cerebral palsy involves distortions of voluntary movement, the patterns of voice and speech often mirror the physical challenges experienced elsewhere in the body, such as stilted or jerky movements.12

In the athetoid type of cerebral palsy, which involves damage to the basal ganglia, individuals may experience slow, involuntary spasms of the face and neck. These spasms, combined with facial grimacing, can lead to inarticulate speech that often worsens under stress or excitement. Consequently, even individuals who are perceptive and intelligent may struggle to communicate using intelligible words or signs due to these involuntary movements and the resulting dysarthria.1

Rehabilitation efforts, such as the Bobath method, focus on the learned suppression of primitive reflexes to help improve these speech and movement patterns.2