During National Speech, Language, and Hearing Month, we’re celebrating the role speech-language pathologists play in helping patients heal after an illness or injury.
Speech language pathologists help with speech and articulation, cognition, the physical aspect of speaking, and even swallow disorders.
They develop an individualized care plan based on each patient’s needs and goals to help them communicate and live independently.
Speech therapy can help patients communicate with loved ones, eat their favorite foods, and navigate day-to-day activities more independently.
During National Speech, Language, and Hearing Month in May, Regional One Health is highlighting speech therapy and the impact it has on patients.
Speech language pathologist Monique Burt, M.A., CCC-SLP, described how speech therapy can help patients with a variety of conditions.
“Speech is more than just what you hear, and speech therapy is more than just articulation – our scope of practice is something many people aren’t aware of!” Burt said.
There are five key areas in a speech therapist’s scope of practice:
- Speech and articulation
- Language, i.e. the content of speech
- Swallowing
- Voice, or the physical aspect of speaking
- Cognition, which includes attention, memory, executive function, planning, and organization
Speech language pathologists play a crucial role in helping patients heal after an injury or illness. They can help with various aspects of speech disorders as well as swallow disorders.
Speech language pathologists treat a wide range of conditions including stroke, traumatic brain injuries, laryngeal trauma, head and neck cancer, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and more. SLPs also see post-COVID patients, whose concerns are typically cognitive, such as difficulty with attention, planning, memory, and organization.
“The speech therapy team at Regional One Health is amazing. We see patients in a variety of settings, including outpatient, inpatient, subacute care, and acute care, and we treat a number of diagnoses such as aphasia, dysphagia, and dysarthria,” Burt said.
Aphasia is a language disorder that can impact an individual’s ability to express and understand language, while dysarthria is a speech disorder that contributes to a slurred speech quality due to muscle weakness. Dysphagia is a swallowing disorder in which the patient experiences difficulty eating or drinking.
These conditions most often occur due to trauma to the brain from a head injury, stroke, or neurologic disease.
“In order to curate an appropriate and effective plan of care, a good case history and rapport is vital,” Burt said.
Treatment focuses on improving the patient’s quality of life and pinpointing targets that may be most challenging to the patient in his or her daily life. For many patients, speech therapy involves learning strategies to overcome those challenges.
Speech language pathologists treat a wide range of conditions including stroke, traumatic brain injuries, laryngeal trauma, head and neck cancer, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and post-COVID symptoms.
For example, if someone is having difficulty with word finding, a speech language pathologist may encourage them to describe the word characteristics such as size, function, color, and other associated words to the listener in order to repair a communication breakdown. This strategy allows the listener to try to determine the target word based on the description in order to establish a common understanding of the overall communicative message.
“In therapy, it is important to create a safe space for patients to learn new ways to overcome their challenges by utilizing and practicing evidence-based strategies,” Burt said.
“The goal for speech therapy is progress, not necessarily perfection. It is about the achievements and wins we make along the way.”