Speech And Language Therapy
Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) is at the crossroads between medicine and psychology. Speech and Language Therapists provide screening, prevention, evaluation, diagnosis and treatment of verbal and non-verbal communication challenges and oro-facial related problems such as dysphagia or swallowing issues and facial paralysis.
Speech and language Therapists, also known as Speech Pathologists, Orthophonistes and Logopèdes, are Allied Health professionals. They provide prevention care and support for patients of all ages, as well as support for their families or caregivers. SLTs work collaboratively with parents, caregivers and other professionals, such as teachers, nurses, occupational therapists, psychologists and doctors. SLTs also provide training and family education.
Articulation Delays or Disorders
Articulation delay or disorder refers to mispronouncing a sound compared to the developmental age. For example, the person has difficulty to pronounce the sound [s], [r]…
At the age of 3 years and 6 months, the speech of the child should be clear and intelligible by the family and strangers. If the child’s speech is unclear and includes omitting, adding, and/or reversing syllables, then the child should be referred to a Speech and Language Therapist to support speech development.
Some individuals with complex conditions do not develop speech in accordance with typical child development. Other individuals may lose speech due to degenerative disease, brain injury, or stroke. Alternative methods to speech (AAC) are used to decrease communication frustration, and increase social opportunities.
Language delay or disorder
Language delay can concern receptive or expressive language. The ability to understand words, sentences and conversation is receptive language. Expressing words, simple and complex sentences, and conversation is expressive language. An SLT can screen, assess and diagnose individuals who have expressive and/or receptive delays when compared to developmental milestones for their age.
Autism, or autism spectrum disorder, refers to a range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, verbal and nonverbal communication, as well as by unique strengths and differences.
Social Interaction Difficulties or Disorder
Social communication is the use of language in social contexts. It includes social interaction, social cognition, pragmatics, and language processing.
Social communication skills include the ability to vary speech style to match the context or needs of the listener, to take the perspective of others (Theory of Mind), understand and appropriately use the rules for verbal and nonverbal communication, and use the structural aspects of language (e.g., vocabulary, syntax, and phonology) to accomplish these goals.
Articulation and tongue posture in Orthodontic cases
This is when the tongue moves forward in an exaggerated way during speech and/or swallowing. The tongue may lie too far forward during rest or may protrude between the upper and lower teeth during speech and swallowing, and at rest. This will affect dental occlusion. The tongue posture treatment is important.
The tongue may also block the airflow during sleeping and cause Sleep Apnea. Tongue’s exercises are recommended.
Specific learning disabilities
Students with a specific learning disability have significant difficulty in one academic area such as Reading, Written Expression, logical reasoning. The child can suffer from reading problem (dyslexia), spelling problem (dysorthographia), logical reasoning problem (dyscalculia), attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder
Stuttering is a fluency disorder affecting the speech characterized principally by blocks or spasms or repetitions during communication. For children, adolescents and adults we use a holistic approach where we combine many methods depending on clear evaluation of the symptoms.
The misuse of the voice and the respiration can lead to a repetitive voice problem or dysphonia that can affect the vocal cords (nodule, polyp…).
After consulting an ENT doctor, the patient will have to do therapy with SLP that focus on respiration and vocal exercises to avoid the misuse of his/her voice.
Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder resulting from central or peripheral nervous system damage. The person has weakness in his/her speech’s muscles or difficulty to control them.
Dysarthria often is characterized by slurred or slow speech that can be difficult to understand. This can look like the inability to speak louder than a whisper or speaking too loudly, rapid speech that is difficult to understand, or monotone speech
At Talking Brains Center, we are certified with LSVT Loud, Lee Silverman Voice Treatment, best evidence based treatment to treat dysarthria, mainly in neurological cases such as Parkinson Disease, and other neurological conditions (cerebral Palsy…)
Difficulty in swallowing is also called dysphagia. It is most common in people suffering from the brain (brain injury, stroke …) or post-operation such as laryngectomies.
Or hearing loss. It affects senior’s communication, child’s communication and learning abilities.
Individuals with vision impairment can have social-communication challenges due to not being able to read the non-verbal cues of people around them. Particularly for children, it is important to provide developmentally appropriate and direct social communication intervention starting from a young age.