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Speech Therapy

African-American little girl with book and alphabet letters on white background. Speech th

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Speech therapy is the assessment and treatment of communication and speech disorders. It is performed by speech-language pathologists (SLPs), which are often referred to as speech therapists.

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Speech therapy techniques are used to improve communication. These include articulation and phonological therapy, language intervention activities, and others depending on the type of speech or language disorder.

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Why do you need speech therapy?

There are several speech and language disorders that can be treated with speech therapy.

  • Articulation disorders. An articulation disorder is the inability to properly form certain word sounds. A child with this speech disorder may drop, swap, distort, or add word sounds. An example of distorting a word would be saying “thith” instead of “this”.

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  • Fluency disorders. A fluency disorder affects the flow, speed, and rhythm of speech. Stuttering and cluttering are fluency disorders. A person with stuttering has trouble getting out a sound and may have speech that is blocked or interrupted, or may repeat part of all of a word. A person with cluttering often speaks very fast and merges words together.

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  • Resonance disorders. A resonance disorder occurs when a blockage or obstruction of regular airflow in the nasal or oral cavities alters the vibrations responsible for voice quality. It can also happen if the velopharyngeal valve doesn’t close properly. Resonance disorders are often associated with cleft palate, neurological disorders, and swollen tonsils.

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  • Receptive disorders. A person with receptive language disorder has trouble understanding and processing what others say. This can cause you to seem uninterested when someone is speaking, have trouble following directions, or have a limited vocabulary. Other language disorders, autism, hearing loss, and a head injury can lead to a receptive language disorder.

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  • Expressive disorders. Expressive language disorder is difficulty conveying or expressing information. If you have an expressive disorder, you may have trouble forming accurate sentences, such as using incorrect 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.

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  • In addition, speech-language pathologists also work with children who have feeding, swallowing or other oral motor issues.  Good feeding and swallowing skills increase a child’s ability to receive adequate nutrition and hydration for their growth and development. 

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How long do you need speech therapy?

The amount of time a person needs speech therapy depends on a few factors, including:

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  • their age

  • type and severity of the speech disorder

  • frequency of therapy

  • underlying medical condition

  • treatment of an underlying medical condition

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How successful is speech therapy?

 

The success rate of speech therapy varies between the disorder being treated and age groups. The age at which you start speech therapy can also have an impact on the outcome. Speech therapy for young children has been shown to be most successful when started early and practiced at home with the involvement of a parent or caregiver.

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