What is Speech Language Pathology?

A speech-language pathologist is responsible for diagnosing and treating speech, language, cognitive, communication and swallowing disorders. Medical speech therapists often work in healthcare settings such as hospitals, outpatient rehabilitation centers and skilled nursing facilities. They work closely with doctors and other medical professionals to treat patients of all ages.

The goal of speech therapy is to provide a patient-centered, exercise-based treatment program to help improve quality of life. Speech therapists treat a wide range of disorders, such as:

Speech Deficits

• Acquired apraxia of speech: A motor speech disorder
• Dysarthria: A muscle weakness in the oral cavity
• Voice: A change in voice, vocal cord nodules/polyps, paralysis
• Paradoxical vocal fold movement (PVFM): Makes it hard to breathe or talk
• Dysphagia: Difficulty swallowing

Language Deficits

• Aphasia: A disorder that affects how you communicate. It is caused by damage to the language centers of the brain. Aphasia usually occurs in the left side of the brain that controls comprehension, speech and signed languages.

Medical Conditions

• Cognitive: Challenges with memory, attention and some word finding
• Traumatic brain injury (TBI): Causes damage to the brain due to an outside force coming into contact with the head. This can result in speech, language, thinking and swallowing deficits
• Long COVID
• Progressive diseases: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Multiple sclerosis (MG), Dementia, Parkinson’s Disease.
• Cancer: Oral and laryngeal

Speech and language deficits can occur at any age but are most common as a person gets older. Some symptoms that could benefit from Speech Language Pathology treatment include:

• Change in voice
• Speech clarity or crispness
• Trouble swallowing
• Difficulties with reading, writing, understanding verbal information, word finding, repeating, and/or verbal expression after an acute event (traumatic brain injury, cognition, stroke, progressive conditions)
• Change in memory, attention and/or processing speed

What to Expect

A Speech therapist may evaluate your speech, language, voice, cognition and swallowing abilities at your initial visit. A care plan will then be tailored to your needs based on the results of your evaluation. Your therapist will assist you in how to complete speech, language, cognition, voice and/or swallowing exercises. Doing exercises regularly at home can enhance the results of your therapy with speech and language deficits.

Benefits of Speech Language Pathology

After receiving speech therapy, many patients report improvements, such as:

• Improved vocal quality
• Improved memory and processing speed
• Improved word finding and expressive language
• Reduced coughing and throat clearing when eating and drinking
• Sense of security with eating and drinking
• Improved speech clarity

Next Steps

Schedule an appointment to find out if speech-language pathology can help you. For more information about Bronson Rehabilitation Services, visit bronsonhealth.com/rehab or call (269) 575-7010.