Adults may experience speech and language difficulties for a variety of reasons. Services are available for teenage and adult clients who have concerns about a lisp, clarity of speech and speech sounds, stuttering, difficulty problem solving and reasoning, accessing language/word finding, apraxia, aphasia, and dysarthria.
How can you help me?
Speech therapy begins with a Speech and Language Assessment. The area of concern is identified and determined through:
- Case history/interview (including relevant information from health/education reports)
- Clinical observations of current skills
- Informal collection of data
- Formal assessment (if needed)
A summary of findings is given verbally to the client and/or client’s family accompanying the client to the appointment. A written report will follow once the speech pathologist understands all areas impacted and is ready to develop a therapy plan.
Speech and language differences or disorders may be found in one or more of the five areas of speech and language that include:
- understanding of language,
- expression of language orally
- reading
- writing
- oral motor skills.
Based on findings from the speech and language assessment as well as considering the client’s input on their own goals for rehabilitation, a therapy plan is developed. Strategies and homework will be given to help the client achieve their goals to the best of their ability.
Regaining skills IS possible. Our brains are always growing and changing with the new experiences we have through neuroplasticity.
Common Speech and Language Disorders in Adults
Speech Disorders:
- Apraxia – difficulties coordinating and planning muscle movements to produce speech others can understand. Words and sentences often sound jumbled or meaningless due to multiple speech sound errors or substitutions. Commonly people know what they want to say they just have difficulty programming their mouth to say it the way others can understand.
- Dysarthria – a speech disorder of the mouth muscles used to produce speech that originates from muscle weaknesses or paralysis. Dysarthria presents as slurred mumbled speech. Dysarthria is common with traumatic insults to the brain, cerebral palsy, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, ALS, Huntington’s chorea, Wilson’s disease and many others.
- Stuttering – characterized by disruptions in the production of speech sounds and words, also called “disfluencies” that affect the fluency or flow of speech.
Language Disorders:
Understanding and expression of language are the two main areas needed to communicate with others. We need to know what we want to say and then say it. When someone experiences a stroke or a brain injury they may have concerns with one or both of these areas:
- Aphasia – is a communication disorder that results from damage to the parts of the brain that contain language (typically in the left half of the brain). The specific symptoms and severity of aphasia vary depending on the location and extent of brain damage.
- Traumatic Brain Injury – is a form of brain injury caused by sudden damage to the brain that result in cognitive and communication deficits. Some challenges may include difficulty understanding or producing speech clearly (aphasia), slurred speech consequent to weak muscles (dysarthria), and/or difficulty in programming oral muscles for speech production (apraxia). Difficulty problem solving, organizing, planning and reasoning are often seen as areas of concern by close friends and family.
Voice Disorders:
Are medical conditions involving abnormal pitch, loudness or quality of the sound produced by the larynx and thereby affecting speech production. Voice therapy can help ease the symptoms by improving the way the person uses their voice.
Types of voice disorders may include but not limited to:
- Harsh, low voice
- breathy voice
- nasal quality
- vocal nodules or polyps
- muscle tension dysphonia
- spasmodic dysphonia
Medical Conditions with Speech Language Involvement:
May include but not limited to the following
- Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis – also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease
- Dementia
- Parkinson’s
- Right Hemisphere Brain Injury
- Stroke
- Traumatic Brain injury
What can be done?
Therapy will be adapted to best meet the needs of each client based on goals the client has for improvement on their speech and language skills.
Active therapy can and will help a person regain skills if they are motivated to practice and use the strategies given by the speech-language pathologist daily. Regaining skills is possible. Our brains are always growing and changing with the new experiences we have had through a process called neuroplasticity.
What about degenerative diseases where we know skills will only get worse?
Yes, I can help! Communication strategies can be discussed and a plan can be made for the future when the disease has progressed so far that a person has lost their verbal means of communicating with loved ones. I can help develop a communication plan and implement strategies to help you communicate before you have lost your voice and are unable to verbalize your thoughts. Picture exchange communication system can be developed, a communication book, or communication boards. All very effective options.