Speech therapy is a treatment to help improve your communication. It is beneficial for children with speech disorders or adults who have developed speech impairment due to an illness or injury. The techniques used in speech therapy, such as language intervention activities, articulation therapy, and others, help with fluency, early language skills, voice and sound production, and clarity and expression. Below are several speech and language disorders that your specialist at PediaPlex treats.
Fluency disorders
Fluency disorder affects your speech’s speed, flow, and rhythm, causing you to stutter or clutter. Stuttering is when one has trouble getting a sound and has blocked or interrupted speech. People who clutter often speak faster than usual and merge words.
Resonance disorder
Resonance disorders are common in people with swollen tonsils, cleft palate, and neurological disorders. The conditions block or obstruct regular airflow into the nasal or oral cavities, altering the vibrations responsible for voice quality. Resonance disorders may also happen when the velopharyngeal valve does not function properly.
Receptive disorders
If you have a receptive disorder, you may have trouble comprehending or processing what another person says. As a result, you may seem uninterested when someone is speaking, or you may have challenged following directions. People with receptive disorders also tend to have a limited vocabulary. You may develop this disorder due to a head injury and autism, and hearing loss conditions.
Articulation disorders
Children with articulation disorders have problems forming certain words and often drop, distort, swap, or add word sounds.
What happens during speech therapy?
Speech therapy sessions usually vary depending on the type of speech disorder and age. For adults, therapy mainly focuses on rebuilding or improving a particular skill set, while for children, it involves play such as language-based board games and sequencing activities. Patients have unique needs; therefore, speech therapists recommend treatment to address a person’s special needs. Your healthcare provider chooses the best approach and category of speech therapy that works for you.
How long do I need speech therapy?
The treatment duration varies based on the severity of the speech disorder, age, underlying medical condition, and frequency of therapy. Speech disorders in childhood may improve with age or progress into adulthood and require long-term therapy sessions. If a communication disorder is due to a medical condition such as stroke, it often improves as the condition improves with treatment.
The success of therapy also depends on how early you sought intervention. For example, treatment success in children is higher when started earlier and practiced at home with a parent or caregiver.
Speech therapy activities to try at home
If your child has a speech disorder, you can help them develop communication skills through simple practices such as:
- Playing board games that involve describing objects or asking questions.
- Talking to your child more using simple but grammatically correct speech that your child can imitate.
- Reducing screen time since too much television can delay language development.
- Reading to your child or asking them to read back to you.
If your child has a speech disorder, visit a speech therapist at PediaPlex for therapy to improve their ability to comprehend and express ideas, thoughts, and feelings.
