Logopedics, Vol. 12 No. 1, 2022.
Professional paper
https://doi.org/10.31299/log.12.1.4
Acquired non-specific stuttering in Parkinson’s disease: a case report
Marijana Balažinec
; Center of SLP and Rehabilitation Blaži, Zagreb
Ljiljana Širić
orcid.org/0000-0001-6294-9156
; Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University Hospital Center Osijek; Department of General and Applied Kinesiology, Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Zagreb
Lana Maljković
; Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital Center Zagreb
Katarina Marijan
; Center of SLP and Rehabilitation Blaži, Zagreb
Abstract
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease predominantly characterized by
tremor, bradykinesia, and rigor. In addition to motor and non-motor manifestations of Parkinson’s
disease, there are a number of symptoms, including speech disorders and other cognitive impairments.
The most common speech symptoms are bradylalia, dysarthria, hypophonia and impaired prosody.
Cognitive changes that occur in the prodromal phase of PD include impairment in executive functions
and working memory, followed by impairment in attention and verbal fluency, and that is before the
motor characteristics of PD become visible. The aim of the study is to present the case of a 74-year-old patient with Parkinson’s disease who has speech and language difficulties and atypical speech
disfluency. Diagnostic processing was performed using a clinical battery of tests for speech – language
assessment and neuropsychological assessment. The results of the speech – language assessment indicate
significantly reduced intelligence due to non-specific speech disfluency and inaccurate articulation,
difficulty in organizing spontaneous expression and understanding grammatical structures, impaired
phonemic verbal fluency and difficulties in receptive vocabulary. Neuropsychological processing
indicated diffuse deterioration of the examined cognitive functioning to be larger than expected when
taking ito consideration the age and probably good premorbid abilities of this person.
Keywords
Parkinson’s disease; speech fluency; stuttering; language difficulties; therapy
Hrčak ID:
283629
URI
Publication date:
10.7.2022.
Visits: 951 *