Speech Disorders

Acquired verbal aphasia in a 7-year old female: case report. Manuelle, JD and Fysh, PN Journal of Clinical Chiropractic Pediatrics Vol. 1, No.2 1996.

From the abstract:

A case report is presented of a 7-year-old female patient with acquired verbal aphasia. Despite appropriate referral to specialists in pediatrics, audiology and speech and language pathology, the patient’s verbal difficulties improved only after the commencement of chiropractic care. Follow-up evaluations over a period of 18 months demonstrated that speech improvements had been maintained.

The authors comment that the patient received DPT and MMR shots about 6 weeks prior to the onset of symptoms. The relationship between aphasia and vaccination damage has been noted by others.

Oral apraxia: a case study in chiropractic management. Araghi HJ. In: Proceedings of the ICA National Conference on Chiropractic and Pediatrics, Dallas; 1994:34-41.

This is the case of a five-year-old female diagnosed with oral apraxia (inability to speak), an abundance of energy and deep heavy snoring while sleeping.

Prior to chiropractic care the child could understand spoken language and could respond with sign language but was unable to speak. Specific upper cervical adjustments were given to the Co-C1 and C1-C2 segments.

After the first adjustment the child was in a deep sleep for a long period of time with no snoring. She awoke in the middle of the night and spoke her first spoken word. Under continued chiropractic care the patient’s speech improved, her energy “abundance” eased.

Case report: resolution of spasmodic dysphonia (focal laryngeal dystonia) via chiropractic manipulation. Wood KW. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics 1991; 14:376-378.

Author’s abstract:

This paper discusses the case of a 46 year old male suffering from spasmodic dysphonia, a chronic disorder involving hyper adduction of the vocal mechanism and resultant vocal arrest. Attention is paid to the innervation of the intrinsic laryngeal musculature and postulated mechanisms of irritation, which may be amenable to chiropractic.

At the time the patient went to the chiropractor, he had been suffering from this condition for six months and had consulted with numerous specialists and two teaching hospitals with no improvement in his condition. The chiropractor learned that upper cervical pain and stiffness and suboccipital headache appeared along with the vocal problem. After two weeks of upper cervical adjustments (5 visits) the condition cleared up.

Mobilization of the Spine. Grieve GP Churchill Livingston, London/New York, 4th edition, 22-23. 1984

From the text:

All those experienced in manipulation can report numerous examples of migrainous headaches, disequilibrium (vertigo), subjective visual disturbances, feelings of retro-orbital pressure, dysphagia, dysphonia, heaviness of a limb, extra segmental paraesthesia, restriction of respiratory excursion, abdominal nausea and the cold sciatic leg being relieved by manual or mechanical treatment of the vertebral column.

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