Speech Therapy
Speech therapy provides skilled therapy services to adults and children to facilitate improved communication, swallowing and cognitive skills. Speech language pathologists are trained to facilitate improved speech, language, voice and fluency to improve communication and are also trained to evaluate and treat swallowing disorders. Cognitive skills, such as memory, concentration and problem solving, are also skills which speech pathologists evaluate and treat to maximize a person's ability to function safely.
All of our speech therapists are nationally certified by the American Speech and Hearing Association as speech/language pathologists. They will evaluate and treat various disorders involving speech, language, reading and writing skills, and memory disorders. They also provide videofluoroscopic swallowing evaluations to assess swallowing problems. Depending on your location, the following diagnosis and treatments may be available:
Common diagnoses include
- Autism
- Articulation/ phonology difficulties
- Auditory processing difficulties
- Cleft lip/ palate
- Chromosomal abnormalities
- Cerebral Palsy
- Fluency disorders
- Hearing loss
- Hydrocephalus
- Oral motor disorders (dysarthria and apraxia)
- Pervasive developmental disorder (PDD)
- Pragmatic language disorders
- Receptive/ Expressive Language delays (understanding/ expression of language)
- Speech delays
- Stuttering
- Voice disorders
Common Medical Conditions that Affect Speech
There are medical conditions that can hinder a person's speech capabilities. Some of those conditions include:
- Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
- Dementia
- Huntington's Disease
- Oral Cancer
- Parkinson's Disease
- Seizure disorders
- Stroke
- Traumatic Brain Injury
Common Speech Treatment Tools
- Assistive technology
- Augmentative communication devices
- Interactive metronome program
- Earobics
- Kauffman approach
- Voice therapy for laryngectomies
- Voice treatment for patients with Parkinson's disease
- Cognitive therapy (memory, attention, concentration, problem-solving, reasoning)
- Voice disorders (hoarseness or abnormal voice quality)
- Dysphagia (swallowing disorders) in adults
- Language disorders for pediatrics (language delay) and adults (aphasia)
- Speech disorders for articulation deficits and dysarthria
- Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)