What is Speech Therapy?
Speech Therapy is a treatment for children and adults who present any range of the following problems.
Speech Disorders
- Aphasia – difficulty understanding and formulating language often linked to stroke, head injury
- Apraxia – challenges with planning and coordinating muscle movements in order to make speech sounds
- Articulation & Phonology – how we produce speech sounds and the speech patterns with which we use them
- Dysarthria – slurred speech
- Fluency – stuttering
- Voice – difficulties with how our voice sounds, such as hoarseness
Language Disorders
- Expressive Language – how we use spoken and written language
- Receptive Language – how we understand spoken and written language
- Pragmatic Language – how we communicate socially, including but not limited to social language, nonverbal language, social behavior, abstract language, deductive reasoning, etc.
Swallowing Disorders
- Oral-Motor Disorders – tongue, lips & cheek weaknesses and coordination difficulties
- Swallowing / Feeding Disorders – difficulty chewing and / or swallowing, tolerance of food textures (picky eaters)
- Tongue Thrust / Reverse Swallow - often diagnosed through dentist
Other Areas of Treatment
- Augmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC) devices
- Cognitive-Linguistic Skills – memory, attention, orientation, following directions, problem solving
- Executive Functions
- Hearing Loss – loss of hearing