Speech therapy helps people with difficulty speaking communicate better and break barriers that result from speech impediments. The goals of speech therapy are to strengthen muscles used in speech, enhance pronunciation, and learn to speak correctly.
Speech therapy can be used for various speech disorders and problems, such as hoarse voice and partial speech loss caused by brain damage.
These therapists offer life-changing support, treatment, and care for children and adults with difficulty eating, drinking, swallowing, and communicating. Speech therapists help people with speaking and communication problems caused by either physical or psychological reasons.
Speech therapists do a variety of exciting things. They help patients with different conditions and work in multi-disciplinary teams. Speech therapists help children with the following conditions:
Speech therapists help adults with these conditions:
Speech therapists help treat speech and language disorders and swallowing problems.
People with this disorder have trouble producing sounds, speaking clearly, and talking fluently. Developmental disorders cause speech disorders; however, psychological factors may also be the reason. Adults may also have speech disorders if they have neurological diseases, which makes it hard for them to understand.
Fluency disorder is another group of speech disorders that involves problems with evenness and flow of speech. People with this disorder may clutter or stutter. Stuttering often causes people to have silent pauses in their speech, lengthen their sentences, or repeat what they have to say.
On the other hand, cluttering is abnormally fast speech, making imprecise pronunciation and leaving out parts of words or sounds.
This disorder is a persistent change in one’s voice. People with voice disorders might sound strained, raspy, hoarse, or nearly silent. Their voices may easily crack, or they may not be able to speak loudly. Voice disorders may result from speaking too loudly and not using proper breathing techniques. They may also be due to voice box problems like vocal nodules. Psychological factors like depression can also affect a person’s voice.
Language disorders in childhood can affect a child’s ability to speak, name things, and construct complete sentences. Causes may not often be clear, but risk factors include hearing, brain development, and general developmental issues.
Adults with language disorders are mainly those with brain injury or diseases. For instance, people with strokes have difficulty remembering words and constructing sentences. This disorder is called aphasia.
People with swallowing problems have affected muscles, making transporting food through the mouth and throat difficult. The common causes are diseases of the nervous system, including dementia, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, infection, or head injury. If food gets into the lungs due to the swallowing disorder, it may lead to life-threatening situations.
Depending on their speech disorder, children may have speech therapy in a small group, classroom, or one-on-one setting. Speech therapy activities and exercises depend on your child’s needs, age, and disorder.
SLP may do the following during speech therapy for children:
This therapy begins with an assessment to help identify an adult’s needs to provide the best treatment. Exercises for adults can help with their language, speech, and cognitive communication.
Speech therapy can also include retraining swallowing function if diseases like Parkinson’s and oral cancer have caused swallowing difficulties. The exercises can also include memory, problem-solving, organization, and other activities to improve cognitive communication.
The list includes:
If you are trying therapy exercises at home, there are many available resources, which include:
The success rate of speech therapy varies on the disorder and age groups being treated. The time speech therapy was initiated also impacts the result. Speech therapy for children is proven to be more successful when practiced at home and started early. It will also help if the parents or caregivers are involved.
Speech therapy can help cure a wide range of language and speech delays and disorders in both children and adults. Early intervention can also improve communication and self-confidence.
