Speech therapy is also called speech-language pathology. It is a specialized field that focuses on the diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment of individuals with communication, speech, cognitive, and swallowing disorders. Speech therapy covers a broad range of services aimed to improve the person’s ability to communicate effectively, think rationally and clearly, and overcome swallowing-related disorders (dysphagia).
Speech therapy improves communication skills, both expressive and receptive abilities. That is, it improves the ability to accurately understand written and spoken language (receptive) as well as appropriately use written and spoken language (expressive). It helps individuals understand others more clearly, helps with transactional interactions and following directions, helps people articulate and enunciate more clearly, and guides people to more appropriate social interaction when this is a concern.
Additionally, speech therapy can help strengthen cognitive skills, including executive functioning, problem-solving, attention, memory, planning, and life skills. This is cognitive therapy, and it is a component of our speech therapy service. At Precision Speech Therapy, we work with the full range of causes for the need for speech therapy. We work with children needing a helping hand through their language development, children and adults with autism and other neurological conditions, and children and adults with food and swallowing issues.
Speech therapy helps adults and children improve their language and communication skills. Regardless of the cause for impeding effective communication, speech therapy can help. Speech therapy improves people’s ability to speak and use other language skills, including social skills. It helps people learn to express their thoughts accurately and clearly, and to understand what others are attempting to convey. Speech therapy can also improve skills like memory, attention, multi-tasking, and problem-solving. Additionally, speech therapy can help with swallowing impairments such as choking or inability to swallow, and food issues for little kids as their palate develops (and rejects most things, or they become picky eaters, or they demonstrate increased gagging with new food). In each of these ways, speech therapy contributes to the overall health and well-being of the individual. Strong language, communication, and social skills are needed for life success. Since the world is filled with people and each person’s success relies to some extent on the involvement of others, it’s very difficult to get too far ahead without these essential skills. Our team of Speech-Language Pathologists at Precision Speech Therapy customize a treatment plan for each individual patient in line with each patient’s goals. Using tools grounded in evidence produced through empirical scientific research, we tackle each issue professionally and thoroughly.
Speech therapy addresses and treats several speech and language disorders, cognitive disorders, and food and swallowing disorders. There are several types of speech and language disorders that speech therapy addresses. Articulation disorders. Primarily in children but also sometimes in adult recovery after neurological damage, an articulation disorder is the inability to form certain English sounds. Common sounds in English that can be difficult to articulate are r, l, th, and s. Lisps are also articulation disorders. Fluency disorders. When the flow, speed, and rhythm of speech are affected, this is a fluency disorder. There are two: stuttering and cluttering. Stuttering is a block in speech, where the person may repeat some or all of a word. Cluttering is a speech superhighway, where the person speaks very quickly and joins words together. Receptive disorders. Difficulty understanding and processing what others say is a receptive language disorder. This disorder can cause this person to seem uninterested or aloof when someone is speaking, have difficulty following directions, or have a limited vocabulary. Receptive language disorders are often rooted in something else, such as hearing loss, autism, or a head injury. Some children that show a delay in speaking actually have a delay in receptive language, as receptive language skills are the foundation for expressive communication. Expressive disorders. This is difficulty expressing or conveying information. It manifests as difficulty putting words together and forming accurate sentences, such as using improper verb tense. Cognitive-communication disorders. Memory issues, problem solving, executive functioning, higher-level processing, and difficulty with speaking or listening can be representative of cognitive-communication disorders. Feeding disorders and dysphagia. Feeding therapy is typically for infants with a risk of aspiration (maybe they were born prematurely, or needed thickened formula when they left the hospital), children that have a G- tube or tracheostomy tube, or children who have difficulty transitioning to solids. This typically manifests once solids are introduced and parents notice more gagging/choking on new textures, liquid or solids spilling out of their mouth, or abnormal chewing patterns with solid foods resulting in food being spit out or left in cheek pockets. Dysphagia or swallowing therapy is also provided to adults. Swallowing impairments in adults normally occur following a neurological event (stroke, brain injury), those who are undergoing treatment for heck, neck, or oral cancer, and often develop with progressive neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s or Alzhiemers. Swallowing impairments can also occur in individuals as we age. When children need to address difficulty with their food or drink, it’s called feeding therapy. When adults need the same therapy, it’s called dysphagia. Either way, speech therapists can help.
Therapy sessions are generally 30-45 minutes for children and about 45-60 minutes for adults. The length of time in which an individual is advised to undergo speech therapy will depend entirely on a) the person’s original condition; b) the severity of that condition; and c) the individual’s rate of progress. Some adults may require therapy anywhere from 6 weeks to 6 months. Addressing children’s issues usually takes about 6 months to a year, as the therapist can work with the child’s developing brain over time and help entrench new practices and habits. At the same time, speech therapy for conditions of neurological decline have their own timeline, and it is often ongoing. These diseases are progressive such as Parkinson’s, Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimers, Dementia, or Huntington’s, so they undergo stages. Each stage has its own characteristics and recommended management and treatment. It is the caregivers and family members who require a great deal of therapy to better understand their loved one’s condition and how to best address it on a daily basis as their loved one progresses through the stages of the disease. So long as stasis is preserved, appropriate care is clear. But when a new stage of the disease has been reached, loved ones and caregivers will need to return for guidance on managing this new stage of the disease. We have trained therapists for this type of therapy and specialized programs and groups for these individuals.
Speech therapy absolutely works for stuttering. Stuttering is a common fluency disorder, and is also called disfluency. Experts remain uncertain as to the exact cause of stuttering, but most agree that it has a neurological basis, rooted in the brain regions responsible for how speech and language are processed. There is some evidence of genetics playing a role in stuttering. Whatever its cause, its effects are clearer. Stuttering can significantly impact a person’s ability to communicate smoothly, in turn bringing all levels of challenges to social and professional life. It also impedes an individual’s ability to develop strong self-confidence and to project the self with an air of solid confidence, which impedes social and professional advancement. Speech therapists employ various techniques, all grounded in empirical research evidence, to help people manage and overcome stuttering, and achieve confident and fluent speech. We tend to see more children for stuttering than adults, as most adults don’t have this disorder even if they had it as kids. But if you do tend to stutter more often than you’d like to, we’re sure we can help. Make an appointment for an assessment and we’ll get you all squared away.
Speech therapy sessions are scheduled once or twice a week. Their frequency depends on several factors. These include severity of condition, the patient’s pace of progress, and often, home support. Individuals present with varying levels of severity of their condition, of course. The more severe the condition when the patient comes to see us, the greater treatment frequency we will recommend. We don’t usually recommend individuals visit speech therapy sessions more than twice per week. An integral element of speech therapy is home support. Our office will provide home practice exercises to the patient. In most cases, the patient’s family and/or caregivers will be responsible for ensuring these exercises get done on a daily basis. Without practicing the new skills between sessions, progress will be exceedingly slow. If the patient is unable to practice at home or can practice only a little, more frequent therapy visits are needed. For our patients with diseases of neurological decline, the patient along with their family and caregivers will need to come in at the onset of each stage of the disease for education and guidance on managing the disease at this new stage. As a result, these people will see us periodically over time, perhaps for a few or several years, throughout different phases of the disease.
The first session of speech therapy is an assessment. We will talk with the patient, listen to the patient speak, and give the patient tests of cognitive ability. If you are coming in for a swallowing evaluation, you are provided with different types of foods and liquids to assess the function and safety of your swallow. From this assessment we develop a diagnosis, and from the diagnosis we develop a treatment plan tailored to each patient specifically. We discuss goals, decide frequency of visits, and determine the best time to come for appointments, which is an issue for individuals with work schedules and those who rely on others for rides. This occurs in the first session. From the second session forward, the one-on-one work happens. Different conditions call for different treatment modalities, of course. For those with swallowing difficulties, we will do a lot of swallowing-related exercises and throat exercises. When language or cognition are the reason for people’s visits, various tasks are employed appropriate to the patient and condition. For the speech-delayed toddler, our speech therapists are on the floor talking and playing with them. The 6-year-old child is sitting at the table doing worksheets and articulation drills. Patients of cognitive therapy perform exercises aimed to strengthen skills related to memory, problem-solving, executive functioning, planning, attention, and life skills such as following a written recipe or understanding a spoken TED talk.
Yes we work with individuals that are tracheostomy tube-dependent that may be working on their swallowing or learning to communicate effectively with a tracheostomy tube, or most likely, a combination of the two.
Yes we see individuals post laryngectomy that are working to regain their ability to speak and communicate again with a new voice.
For pediatric patients, we only offer speech services at this time. For adults needing physical therapy and speech, we do serve both and try our best to schedule both appointments the same day to reduce the amount of trips to the clinic. We often collaborate with physical therapy as well so our goals are effectively met and cross over between disciplines.
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