Speech therapy refers to assessing and treating communication problems and speech disorders.
Online VS In-Office Speech Therapy Sessions
If you want to take maximum advantage of your speech therapy sessions, online speech therapy sessions can help you. Online speech therapy sessions are much effective than visiting a speech-language pathologist in an office because you can comfortably attend these sessions from the comfort of your home. Also, in-home speech therapy sessions eliminate the worries of arranging transportation, and the entire family can participate in these sessions.
Who Needs Speech Therapy?
Speech therapy is helpful for speech disorders that develop early in childhood or speech complications that occur in adults due to an injury or illness such as stroke or brain injury.
Speech therapy offers numerous benefits, such as; helps in improving communication. Apart from improving communication, speech therapy can also help patients suffering from tongue and throat disorders.
Who Conducts Speech Therapy?
Speech therapy sessions are usually conducted by speech-language pathologists (SPLs), commonly referred to as speech therapists. Speech therapists are medical professionals who work with patients experiencing several oral issues.
These issues may range from general communication to voice, language, and swallowing. Speech therapy may include articulation therapy, language intervention activities, or others depending on the type of language disorder.
A professional speech therapist can treat babies, children, and kids.
Why Do You Need Speech Therapy?
Speech therapy is needed for patients experiencing speech disorders. Several language disorders can be treated with speech therapy. Let’s discuss a few of them.
· Articulation Disorders
Articulation disorder refers to an inability to form certain sounds appropriately. A child suffering from articulation disorder may drop, distort, swap, or add word sounds. For example, a child experiencing articulation disorder may pronounce “thith” instead of “this.”
· Fluency Disorders
Fluency disorder affects the flow, speed, and rhythm of your speech. For example, Stuttering and cluttering are fluency disorders. A person with stuttering experiences trouble getting out a sound and may have blocked or interrupted speech. On the contrary, a person with cluttering usually speaks very fast and mostly merges words together.
· Resonance Disorders
A resonance disorder occurs when a blockage of regular airflow in the nasal or oral cavities disrupts the vibrations responsible for voice quality. The condition may also occur if the velopharyngeal valve does not close properly.
· Receptive Disorders
Autism, hearing loss, or a head injury can lead to a receptive language disorder. A person suffering from receptive disorder finds it difficult to understand and process what others say. Hence, the sufferer becomes uninterested in listening when someone is speaking, has trouble following directions, and has a limited vocabulary.
· Cognitive-Communication Disorder
This refers to an inability to communicate because of an injury to the part of the brain that controls your ability to think. The cognitive-communication disorder leads to memory issues and makes it difficult for you to speak and listen.
The cognitive-communication disorder may be caused due to biological problems such as abnormal brain development, neurological disorder, stroke, or a brain injury.
· Expressive Disorders
Expressive disorder refers to a difficulty in conveying or expressing any information. A person having expressive disorder has trouble creating accurate sentences and may find it difficult to use correct verb tenses.
The expressive disorder is strongly linked with developmental impairments such as hearing loss and Down syndrome. The condition may also result from head trauma or any other medical condition.
· Aphasia
Aphasia is an acquired communication problem that alters an individual’s ability to speak and understand what others are saying. In addition to that, this problem also affects the sufferer’s ability to read and write. One of the most common causes of aphasia is stroke; however, several other brain disorders can also lead to this complication.
· Dysarthria
Dysarthria is a condition characterized by slow or slurred speech. This occurs due to weakness or an inability to control the muscles responsible for speech. The condition is mostly caused by nervous disorders and conditions that lead to facial paralysis or throat and tongue weakness.
