ProHealth Partners provides dependable, high quality therapy services to clients in their homes and at our outpatient facilities, and we are proud of the dedication and skills of our Speech Therapists! In honor of Better Hearing and Speech Month, we asked our speech therapists to provide some information about what Speech Therapy is and how our patients benefit from it.

Speech-language pathologists, sometimes called speech therapists, assess, diagnose, treat, and help to prevent disorders related to speech, language, cognition, voice, fluency, and swallowing.  The need for speech therapy can start at birth and continues across the lifespan into geriatrics. Each area of speech therapy address an area related to communication.

               1. Speech – the ability to produce and sequence 
                    sounds into words
               2. Language – includes both receptive and
                    express language. It is a person’s ability to 
                    understand what is being said and
                    formulate a message to respond. 
               3. Cognition – capabilities of the brain which include problem solving, reasoning, organization, memory, and
                   other related tasks
               4. Voice – the ability to produce voice at the level of the vocal folds
               5. Fluency – the ability to speak smoothly with disruption. Fluency disorders are typically known as stuttering.
               6. Swallowing – is the only area of speech therapy not related to communication. Swallowing is related to
                    speech because of the muscles used for both tasks. Swallowing problems can occur at 3 different stages.
                              o Oral phase – a person’s ability to form a cohesive mass of food through chewing and lingual control 
                                 A person with an adequate oral phase will not have any residue left in the mouth following the
                                 swallow.
                              o Pharyngeal phase – a person’s ability to protect the airway during the swallow, so food or liquid do 
                                 not enter the lungs 
                              o Esophageal phase – the transfer of the food from the pharynx into the esophagus

Disorders requiring speech therapy can result from a variety of causes including stroke, brain injury, neurological disorders, developmental delays, learning disabilities, cerebral palsy, cleft palate, vocal misuse, mental retardation, hearing loss, or emotional problems. Problems can be congenital, developmental, or acquired.

Treatment is always based upon the disorder. A thorough evaluation is completed consisting of standardized assessments, observation, informal measures, and interview. This helps the speech therapist to form a treatment plan that is individualized for the patient. Treatment methods that are research based are chosen to be utilized in the treatment plan.

A speech therapist will work with a person who has one of these disorders to help achieve the highest level of functional independence. This would include rebuilding skills as well as implementing any strategies or equipment that may help the person. Treatment also consists of education of the patient, caretaker, and family members to ensure therapy techniques and strategies are being carried over into everyday life. This allows a person to communicate to the best of his her ability!

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) is the professional, scientific, and credentialing association for 140,000 members and affiliates who are speech-language pathologists, audiologists, and speech, language, and hearing scientists in the United States and internationally.

ASHA empowers and supports speech-language pathologists, audiologists, and speech, language, and hearing scientists by:

• Advocating on behalf of persons with communication and related disorders
• Advancing communication science
• Promoting effective human communication

For information on speech therapy visit http://www.asha.org/public/speech/.