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Speech Therapy
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WHAT IS SPEECH THERAPY?
Speech therapy is a corrective and
rehabilitative treatment programme
designed to help the people with
speech, language and communication
disorders to regain, restore and preserve
the use of language (receptive and
expressive), functions of oral peripheral
mechanism, and improve their verbal
communication to the best of their
ability; through Training ,Modeling
proper speech Drilling Repetitive and
instructive practice and exercises.
WHAT IS SPEECH DISORDER ?
Speech is a physical production of
sounds (consonants and vowels). These
sounds are produced in sequence to
create words. production of speech sounds
involves the muscles, nerves, and brain
working together to plan and execute
movement of the tongue, lips, palate and
jaw.
Speech disorder displays difficulty or
an inability to produce speech sounds
correctly or fluently or with the
quality of voice, which makes the speech
difficult for the listener to
understand. Speech disorder is an
umbrella term for any of the following:
1.
Articulation: speech impairment where a
person produces speech sounds
incorrectly due to poor coordination of
articulators. (eg; Misarticulation /
Mispronunciation
, lisping)
2.
Fluency: where smooth and forward flow of
speech is disrupted by
syllables, words, or phrase that are
repeated, prolonged, or avoided, and
where there may be silent blocks or
inappropriate inhalation or exhalation
or phonation pattern. (eg;
stuttering/Stammering ,cluttering)
3.
Voice: Voice is a sound produced by the
vibration of the vocal folds in the larynx. Voice disorder can be defined as
a problem involving abnormal
pitch, loudness and quality with respect
to age and gender. (eg;
Hoarseness, Puberphonia, Hypernasality
or Hyponasality, Aphonia or
WHO ARE SPEECH LANGUAGE
PATHOLOGISTS (SLPs) ?
SLPs are allied health professionals who
are concerned with the
identification, assessment, treatment, prevention
and rehabilitation of :
 full range of speech, language and
communication disorders in individuals of
all ages.
Swallowing disorders in children and
adults.
What Is Stammering ?
Stuttering is a fluency disorder in
which the smooth and forward flow of
speech is disrupted. It is characterized
by
Repeating sounds, words or phrases (e.g.
I I I I I can do it).
Prolonging or stretching out sounds
(e.g. Where's my sssssister?).
Blocking (moments where no sounds come
out when the person is trying to speak).
These speech disruptions may be
accompanied by struggling behaviors,
such as. head movements, rapid eye
blink, and facial grimacing, tremors of
the lips or jaw etc,).
Stuttering treatment:
Early referral to speech pathology has
the best outcomes for the people who
stutter.
Stuttering treatment aims to train the
child to speak fluently and with
confidence. Types of treatment vary
according to the age of the child and
the severity of their stutter.
1. Speech language pathologists (SLPs):
Speech pathologists are trained to
assess and treat stuttering
Speech language pathologists teach the
person who stammer to control and/or
monitor the rate at which they speak.
They provide psychological counseling to
stammerers to learn to identify and
change ways of thinking that might make
stammering worse thus help the person
who stutter to resolve underlying stress
,anxiety, or self esteem problem related
to stammering.
2. Electronic device: several electronic
devices are available to help people who stutter.The one I use at my centre is
the DAF(Delayed Auditory feedback).which
help the person who stutter to monitor
and control his rate of speech and
speaking fluently.
3. Parental involvement. Parental support
is a key part of helping a child cope
with stuttering. For example, parents
can help slow the child's speech
patterns and praise the child for
speaking fluently.
What is a voice disorder ?
A voice disorder can be defined as a
problem involving abnormal pitch,
loudness or quality of the sound
produced by the larynx, more commonly
known as the voice box.
I provide voice therapy for the
following voice disorders:
Puberphonia: A voice disorder where a
person has a high-pitched adolescent
voice even though they are past the age
of puberty.
Hypernasality: Excessivevely nasal
speech resonance which may result in
detoriation of intelligibility of
speech.The cause is velopharyngeal
insufficiency.
Aphonia:Inability to produce sound.
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