Your first visit includes a comprehensive speech, language, and cognitive evaluation designed to identify your strengths and areas of need. Together, we review the results and build a plan of care with functional goals. We use your strengths to improve areas of difficulty. Goals can be adjusted at any time, and each goal is revisited monthly to measure progress and update your plan.
Our focus
Voice therapy is a specialized area of speech therapy. We recommend seeing an ENT (ear, nose, and throat physician) before starting voice therapy to rule out any physical cause of the voice problem. A Voice Handicap Index evaluation helps determine the severity of the problem, and your speech-language pathologist (SLP) will record a speech sample and take voice measurements to pinpoint specific difficulties. Voice therapy focuses on breath support, vocal hygiene, and pitch adjustment to achieve your best possible voice.
Dysphagia therapy focuses on swallowing function. Your SLP will complete a thorough oral motor examination of all the structures involved in swallowing and assess how you manage various food textures and liquids to determine your risk of aspiration, which occurs when food or liquid travels below the vocal folds and into the lungs. Based on the results, your SLP will make diet recommendations, provide exercises, and teach swallowing strategies so you can eat and drink safely. In some cases, your SLP may recommend a modified barium swallow study, an X-ray evaluation that gives a complete picture of your swallow function and aspiration risk.
Results
Who it helps
Speech therapy can help if you or a loved one has noticed changes such as difficulty finding words or following conversations, slurred or unclear speech, trouble with memory, attention, or problem-solving, a hoarse, weak, or strained voice, or coughing or choking while eating or drinking. These changes are common after a stroke, brain injury, or neurological disease, and early evaluation gives you the best opportunity to improve.
Your role
As a patient your responsibility is to:
Research
Recent studies have shown that individuals with aphasia benefit from intense treatment provided over a short period of time. This therapy regimen increases the possibility of improved communication https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28256356
Breitenstein C1, Grewe T2, Flöel A3, Ziegler W4, Springer L5, Martus P6, Huber W5, Willmes K7, Ringelstein EB8, Haeusler KG9, Abel S10, Glindemann R11, Domahs F12, Regenbrecht F13, Schlenck KJ14, Thomas M8, Obrig H13, de Langen E15, Rocker R8, Wigbers F8, Rühmkorf C8, Hempen I8, List J16, Baumgaertner A2; FCET2EC study group. Intensive speech and language therapy in patients with chronic aphasia after stroke: a randomised, open-label, blinded-endpoint, controlled trial in a health-care setting. Lancet. 2017 Apr 15;389(10078):1528-1538. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(17)30067-3. Epub 2017 Mar 1.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29076848
Stephens M1 The Effectiveness of Speech and Language Therapy for Poststroke Aphasia. Am J Nurs. 2017 Nov;117(11):19. doi: 10.1097/01.NAJ.0000526741.00314.d9. .
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30453329
Gilmore N1, Ross K1, Kiran S1. The Intensive Cognitive-Communication Rehabilitation Program for Young Adults With Acquired Brain Injury. Am J Speech Lang Pathol. 2018 Nov 16:1-18. doi: 10.1044/2018_AJSLP-17-0153. [Epub ahead of print]
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29192534
Mohr B1, Stahl B2,3,4,5, Berthier ML6,7, Pulvermüller F5,8,9. Intensive Communicative Therapy Reduces Symptoms of Depression in Chronic Nonfluent Aphasia. Neurorehabil Neural Repair. 2017 Dec;31(12):1053-1062. doi: 10.1177/1545968317744275. Epub 2017 Dec 1.
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