Hello, I am a speech language pathologist and treat individuals with dysarthria and apraxia among other things. We have specific areas of our brain that control speech and language. With brain damage our cranial nerves can also be impacted which impact our ability to use our lips, tongue, cheeks etc to form speech sounds. There are dysarthria and ataxia have different root causes. Apraxia impacts your motor control so you would typically see inconsistent speech sound errors often vowels. With apraxia we see people groping which means the mouth is essentially trying to figure out the correct movement to make the intended sound. In dysarthria the reason it sounds like slurring is because the muscles aren't strong or coordinate enough to make the intended speech sounds precisely enough. I have worked with many individuals who were completely mobile but only 25% intelligible and often people mistake the person for being drunk or under the influence of something. Apraxia of speech and dysarthria can be confused with each other but because the root cause is different it impacts the therapy/treatment you would receive. If you have not been referred to a speech language pathologist yet I highly recommend asking you provider for a referral. The therapy is typically covered by insurance or Medicare.
I recommend going the the American Speech and Hearing Website (ASHA) and there are many recourses if you search for dysarthria or apraxia.
The good news is dysarthria and apraxia is speech therapy can be very effective if you are determined. You will learn techniques and strategies that you can use to improve the clarity of your speech,