Speech Therapy
Speech-language pathologists diagnose and treat a variety of speech, language, social communication, cognitive-communication, and swallowing disorders in children and adults.
How it Works
What is Speech Therapy?
Speech-language pathologists apply language therapy that includes listening skills, vocabulary, social language skills, and academic skills.
Working with a speech-language pathologist may last for months or even a few years depending on patient’s needs. The overall goal of speech-language pathology is to optimize functional improvements that ultimately improve quality of life.
Treatment
Speech Therapy May Help*
- Speech Disorders: Difficulty producing speaking sounds correctly or fluently (i.e., stuttering) or problems with voice or resonance
- Language Disorders: Trouble understanding others, or communicating thoughts, ideas, and feelings
- Social Communication Disorders: Problems with the social use of verbal and nonverbal communication, such as autism and traumatic brain injury
- Cognitive-communication Disorders: Problems structuring thoughts, paying attention, memory, planning, or problem-solving that are the result of a medical event
- Swallowing Disorders: Feeding and swallowing difficulties following illness, surgery, stroke, or injury
* “Scope of practice in speech-language pathology.” American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2021. Web. Available from https://www.asha.org/policy/sp2016-00343/
