- Speech Characteristics/Disorders (aphasia, dysarthria, and dyspraxia)
- Auditory Comprehension
- Oral/Motor Therapy
- Reading Comprehension
- Written Expression
- Swallowing Disorders (laryngeal and pharyngeal)
- Problem Solving, Memory, and Executive Functions
- Sign Language
- Communication Devices
- Education
- Client/Family Counseling
- Health and Wellness
- Links to Community Resources
Speech Therapy is the corrective or rehabilitative treatment of physical and/or cognitive deficits/disorders resulting in difficulty with verbal communication. This includes both speech (articulation, intonation, rate, intensity) and language (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and both receptive and expressive language, including reading and writing).
A speech-language pathologist (SLP) is a professional who is trained to evaluate and treat disorders of speech, language, cognition, and swallowing. SLPs work to develop and restore the speech of individuals with communication disorders; usually these disorders are the result of traumas such as surgery or stroke. SLPs also help retrain patients in breathing, swallowing, and muscle control.
Medicare Home Health recipients can receive speech therapy in their place of residence, which may include either the home or residential facility.
- Speech therapy focuses on teaching strategies and techniques to maintain functional speech, eventually focusing on the selection and use of augmentative and alternative communication aids.
- Speech therapy helps the patient to use strategies that preserve communication and cognitive functioning for as long as possible, as well as helps to ensure safe swallowing.
- Speech therapy assists the patient with problem solving, evolving into helping to preserve and maintain the patient’s highest level of communication and swallowing.
- The SLP will meet with patient and family before surgery to help plan appropriate post-surgery treatment. The primary goal of the SLP post-surgery is to provide the patient with a new sound source for speech.
- Speech therapy is important to restore speech intelligibility and swallowing skills.
- Speech therapy is designed to improve the patient’s cognitive-communication abilities.
- The SLP works with other rehabilitation and medical professionals and families to provide a comprehensive evaluation and treatment plan for stroke patients.
- The SLP will evaluate cognitive-communication skills, evaluate swallowing and make recommendations regarding management and treatment.
Based upon a complete evaluation, our SLPs develop a personalized and consistent rehabilitation program, in conjunction with a patient’s physician, and use a variety of treatment techniques.
When appropriate, our SLPs provide family or caregiver training to reinforce and enhance the benefits of treatment to ensure better, faster recoveries…
and fewer return visits to the physician’s office for additional treatment or intervention.
www.asha.org
www.ninds.nih.gov
www.abta.org
