New to Speech Therapy? What to Expect

 If you had problems pronouncing certain sounds or stuttering during childhood, you are far from alone. Nearly 1 in 12 children in the United States aged 3-17 has had a disorder related to voice, speech, language, or swallowing. Stuttering alone affects over three million Americans. Fortunately, speech therapy can address speech, language, and other related skills often associated with vocalizing words.

According to the highly skilled team of speech and language pathologists at High Quality Home Therapy, speech therapy isn’t only for kids. In this blog, we share our insights on reasons children and adults turn to speech therapy, what the experience is like, and how it can help them live productive lives.

The trifecta: the brain, speech, and communication

The quality of a person’s life is often about their social engagements and how they communicate and interact with each other. But what happens when there’s a disconnect between what you think and the words that come from your mouth?

Frustrating communication challenges for children who can’t form understandable words and adult stroke patients who have difficulty talking, choosing the right words, or understanding language tend to isolate themselves. Speech therapy can help them recover their communication skills.

To better understand the benefits of speech therapy, let’s look at how speech and communication occur. Like many complex systemic functions, it all starts in the brain.

With language and communication, the largest part of the brain, the frontal lobe, is the center of all the action. The left part of the frontal lobe, named Broca’s area, is the key area for speech and language ability.

When everything is in tip-top shape, brain cells, called neurons, relay a signal to the frontal lobe section, called the motor cortex, which oversees voluntary muscle movement. Neurons in the motor cortex signal the spinal cord, which then dictates how the muscles of the mouth, face, tongue, throat, and lips collaborate to make speech happen. 

When brain trauma, injury, stroke, or a malady in the orofacial muscles happens, typical speech and communication functions get disrupted. 

That’s where speech therapy comes in.

No cookie-cutter solutions

While two patients may have the same speech impairment, no two cases are identical. Your provider, a speech therapist, sometimes called a language pathologist, creates personalized speech therapy treatment plans for each patient’s needs.

A plan can include a variety of exercises or activities designed to tackle speech and communication challenges by enhancing breathing, strengthening facial muscles, and improving memory, social communication, and language skills.

Your provider determines the frequency and length of a therapy session and how long you need to do speech therapy based on the severity of your condition, age, and if there’s an underlying condition contributing to the speech impairment.

Some patients do speech therapy for several weeks, while others may require more intensive treatment for several months or years to gain optimal outcomes.

Getting started with a speech evaluation

A comprehensive speech assessment or evaluation takes place to gather data to develop a patient’s speech therapy treatment plan. During this time, a licensed speech therapist:

• Reviews the patient’s medical history
• Conducts a series of diagnostics to assess the patient’s ability to speak clearly, understand, and respond to instructions and
• Examines the patient’s mouth and face

Sometimes, the provider may conduct a hearing test to determine if an underlying hearing issue contributes to the speech and communication challenges.

Based on the findings of the speech evaluation, your speech therapist creates a personalized treatment plan. High Quality Home Therapy offers various services to address speech and communication issues, such as language and comprehension, social and emotional development, executive function, and oral motor functioning.

Besides one-on-one speech therapy sessions, we host social skills groups to help our patients learn and practice communication skills. Our skilled and compassionate speech therapists connect with our patients, family members, or caregivers after a treatment plan has ended to follow up on progress and ensure long-lasting outcomes. We also offer training and educational programming for caregivers and educators.

If you or a loved one has problems with speech or language skills, schedule an in-person, home-based, or telehealth speech therapy evaluation at High Quality Home Therapy in Stamford, Connecticut. Call us today or use our online tool to schedule an appointment.