What Is Speech Therapy—and What Can It Help With?
Speech therapy is more than just helping someone pronounce words more clearly. It’s the assessment and treatment of communication challenges, including both speech and language disorders, as well as issues related to swallowing and voice. Whether you’re a parent concerned about your child’s speech development or an adult facing new communication challenges, speech therapy can provide life-changing support.
According to Healthline, there are several speech and language conditions that can benefit from speech therapy. Here’s a breakdown of the most common ones:
- Articulation disorders. This happens when there’s difficulty making specific speech sounds correctly. When it’s hard to say words clearly, the person may add, subtract, substitute, or distort sounds in words. For instance, distorting a word may involve saying “thith” instead of “this”. These sound errors can affect confidence and clarity in communication.
- Fluency disorders. A fluency disorder affects the flow, speed, and cadence of speech. Stuttering and cluttering are examples of fluency disorders. A person with stuttering has trouble getting out a sound and may have speech that is blocked or interrupted, or can even be repetitively stuck on a sound or word. A person with cluttering often speaks quickly and jumbles words together.
- Resonance disorders. A resonance disorder happens when there’s something in the way of one’s regular airflow in the nasal or oral cavities, which changes the vibrations responsible for voice quality. It can also happen if the velopharyngeal valve (a part of the body that diverts between the nose and mouth by closing the respective path) doesn’t close properly.
- Receptive disorders. A person with receptive language disorder struggles to understand or process what others say. It can come off as being uninterested, not following directions, or having a limited vocabulary. Other language disorders, autism, hearing loss, and a head injury can lead to a receptive language disorder.
- Expressive disorders. Expressive language disorder is difficulty conveying or sharing information. If you have an expressive disorder, you may have trouble forming accurate sentences, such as using the wrong verb tense. It’s associated with developmental impairments, such as Down syndrome and hearing loss. It can also result from head trauma or a medical condition.
- Cognitive-communication disorders. This can cause memory issues, problem solving, and difficulty speaking, or listening. It can be from biological problems, such abnormal brain development, certain neurological conditions, a brain injury, or stroke.
- Aphasia. This is an acquired communication disorder that affects a person’s ability to speak and understand others. It also often affects a person’s ability to read and write. Stroke is the most common cause of aphasia.
- Dysarthria. This condition is characterized by slow or slurred speech due to a weakness or inability to control the muscles used for speech. It’s most commonly caused by nervous system disorders and conditions that cause facial paralysis or throat and tongue weakness that can make it hard to eat and swallow.
The Power of Early Intervention
Speech therapy can treat a wide range of speech and language delays and disorders. With early intervention, speech therapy can improve communication, boost self-confidence, and empower the patient.
At Strive, we believe that every child and adult deserves the chance to communicate effectively. Our team is here to guide you through every step of the journey—from evaluation to personalized treatment plans that meet each person’s unique needs.
