Who is speech therapist?

Speech language pathologist(SLP) also referred to as the speech therapist is the certified professional under the Rehabilitation council. They will assess and treats lots of communication disorders, swallowing disorders and voice disorders etc.

What is speech therapy?

It is the form of therapeutic intervention provided by the SLP's for children, adult and geriatric with different communication needs and many more.The disorders can be broadly classified in terms of speech, language, voice, swallowing.

Speech disorders

  • Stuttering or stammering where the child or adult will repeat the word several times without their knowledge. For eg. I need a wa.wa.wa...water
  • Articulation disorder where the child or adult may pronounce the sounds differently. They may add or miss the sounds. For eg. They may use than for fan, wed for red.
  • Phonological disorders are patterns of sound errors that simplify speech. It occurs in developing children. For eg. They may use kap for tap, tun for sun.
  • Apraxia where there is a problem in motor coordination in oral structure which makes difficult to produce speech sounds.
  • For adults and geriatric with dysarthria they may experience with articulation and stuttering disorders.

Language disorders

  • Receptive and expressive language delay. This is when the child doesn't speak appropriate to their age limit they may show subtle or wide delay.
  • Expressive language delay. This is when the child reception that is the understanding is age appropriate but their expression of speech doesn't met with their age limit.
  • Aphasia here it affects the person's ability to communicate due to brain damage.

Voice disorders

  • Polyp, nodules or cyst in the vocal cords which occurs mainly because of vocal abuse includes screaming, frequent throat clearing, over use of voice etc
  • Dysphonia is caused by muscle spasms in the vocal cords Which makes inability to move the cords results in hoarseness and breathiness of voice.
  • Mutism is the sudden loss of voice due to psychological or anatomical.

Swallowing disorder

 Neurological conditions such as stroke which cause difficulty in swallowing called dysphagia, cerebral palsy, Parkinson disease, degenerative disease such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis etc. herethe therapist focus on oral muscle to make the individual swallow.

Treatment of these above mentioned disorders will differs from individuals with different needs.the skilled therapist will properly assess, identify and guides to overcome the disorders.

from individuals with different needs. The skilled therapist will properly assess, identify and guides to overcome the disorders.