Speech-Language Therapy
What is a Speech Disorder?
A speech disorder occurs when a person has difficulty producing speech sounds correctly, stutters, or has problems with his or her voice. Here are some examples:
Articulation or Phonological Disorders
A speech sound disorder occurs when mistakes continue past the age when a child would be expected make the sound(s) correctly. Speech sound disorders include problems with articulation (making sounds) and phonological processes (sound patterns). Speech sound disorders can range from a simple lisp to being totally unintelligible.
Childhood Apraxia of Speech
Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a motor speech disorder. The child knows what he or she wants to say but his/her brain has difficulty coordinating the muscle movements necessary to say those words.
Dysarthria
Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder. It results from impaired movement of the muscles used for speech production, including the lips, tongue, vocal folds, and/or diaphragm. The type and severity of dysarthria depend on which area of the nervous system is affected.
Voice Disorders
A voice disorder occurs when a person has chronic hoarseness, laryngitis (loss of voice), excessive hypernasality/hyponasality, and/or difficulties with pitch or loudness variation.
Fluency Disorders
Stuttering is characterized by disruptions in the production of speech fluency such as abnormal stoppages or blocks, repetitions (st-st-stuttering), or prolongation of sounds or syllables (ssssstuttering).
What is a Language Disorder?
When a person has trouble understanding others (receptive language), or sharing thoughts, ideas, and feelings completely (expressive language), then he or she has a language disorder.
When is a therapy needed?
Speech and language therapy is necessary for a variety of reasons, including:
articulation or phonological errors
delayed understand or expression of language
Autism
birth defects such as cleft lip or cleft palate
hearing impairments
cognitive (intellectual, thinking) or other developmental delays
traumatic brain injury or stroke
chronic hoarseness or laryngitis
feeding and swallowing disorders
excessive drooling
Therapy should begin as soon as possible. Children enrolled in therapy early (before they’re 5 years old) tend to have better outcomes than those who begin therapy later.
This does not mean that older kids can’t make progress in therapy; they may progress at a slower rate because they often have learned patterns that need to be changed.
*Source ASHA.org
