Training in Speech Intelligibility Treatment for Children with Dysarthria - Professor Erika Levy
Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder, that is characterised by weakness, paralysis, spasticity or incoordination of speech producing muscles. This webinar would be helpful for ANYONE working with children, as mild dysarthria is an area that is often missed or misdiagnosed, so affected children don't receive the support and treatment needed to make their speech more intelligible.
Webinar: Jun 20, 2025 at 9:00 AM NZST
Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder, that is characterised by weakness, paralysis, spasticity or incoordination of speech producing muscles. It results from damage to the nervous system and may affect approximately 1 in 1,000 children. Speech in these children can be slow, strained, monotone, breathy, and quiet, with imprecise articulation. Dysarthria can be seen in some children with Cerebral Palsy, brain tumours, traumatic brain injury, Down syndrome and others.
Mild dysarthria, especially in children who speak with imprecise articulation, or fluctuating voice volume is often missed or mis-diagnosed. Children with mild dysarthria can be labelled as "mumblers" or "lazy" and not receive the help and treatment needed.
Speech Intelligibility Treatment is a proven, effective treatment for these children. With its instructions to speak with a “big mouth and a strong voice,” SIT addresses the reductions in articulatory working space and vocal intensity seen in many children with dysarthria
By the end of this 90 minute training, you will:
- Understand who SIT should be used with
- Be able to identify the effective components of SIT
- Have an understanding on how SIT can be used therapeutically
- Have the knowledge to use SIT to treat speech challenges seen in children with Dysarthria
This training will NOT be recorded, out of respect and confidentiality for the children shown, so please attend live if you would love this knowledge.
About Professor Erika Levy:
Erika S. Levy, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, is a Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders and Director of the Speech Production and Perception Lab and at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City. Raised in Prague and Vienna, Dr. Levy earned her Ph.D. in Speech and Hearing Sciences from the Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY) while practicing as a trilingual speech-language pathologist.
Dr. Levy has been published widely in the area of treatment efficacy for the motor speech disorder of dysarthria as well as in second language speech learning. She explores treatment efficacy for individuals with dysarthria across languages (English, French, Spanish, Mandarin, and Korean). Dr. Levy developed a speech treatment for children with dysarthria, "Speech Intelligibility Treatment," which has shown significant post-treatment gains in intelligibility and communicative participation in this population.
She has been honored as a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and as Distinguished Alumna of the CUNY Graduate Center, among other honors. Her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the US Department of Education, among other sources.