Etiology Of ALS Essay

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease that involves motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord. ALS is considered to be one of the most common progressive neurological diseases, affecting approximately 20,000 individuals in the United States in a given year (Fried-Oken et al., 2006). Etiology of ALS remains unknown; however, there appears to be an existing genetic component associated with this disease. Changes in speech are first seen in patients with bulbar onset ALS. Mixed dysarthria, characterized by a combination of spastic and flaccid features, is generally seen in this population. Regarding communication, people with ALS exhibit a weakened oral musculature and experience atrophy in the tongue and lips, which results in imprecise articulation and reduced intelligibility as the disease progresses. Speech becomes slow and laborious, characterized by short phrases, strained-strangled vocal quality, hypernasality, and monopitch (Hanson et al., 2011). As ALS continues to progress, communication difficulty in everyday interactions becomes present. With deterioration of communication ability, quality of life is likely to become significantly reduced as well. Because life expectancy among patients with ALS ranges from two to five years after diagnosis, it is important to preserve communication functioning for as long as possible. Current evidence reports there …show more content…
My interest in this topic spurred from my knowledge about the positive impact AAC devices can have on a patient’s communication. In my AAC class thus far, we have focused on the use of AAC with children who have congenital or developmental disorders (e.g., autism, cerebral palsy, etc.); therefore, I wanted to explore AAC options further with an adult population such as