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What is Speech Therapy
When you have a cold or your stomach hurts, you dee s doctor, right?When you have trouble saying certain sounds or words, if you have trouble understanding what other people say your voice is hoarse or you have trouble swallowing you go to speech therapist, also known as a speech-language pathologist (say: peh-thah-leh-jist), who will help you speak better.
Speech therapists help people of all ages with all kinds of speech and language disorders. Here are a few examples of problems a speech therapist can help correct:
Articulation (say: are-ti-kyeh-lay-shen) disorders: if you have trouble saying
certain sounds or saying words correctly, it's called an articulation disorder.
When you say "run" it may come out as "won." Or the word "say" may come
out as "thay." Kids who have lisps have articulation disorders. Although little
kids often have trouble saying words, older kids who still have trouble may
have an articulation disorder.
Fluency (say: flu-en-see) disorders: if you repeat certain sounds, making it hard
to complete a word, you may have a fluency disorder. For example, when you say
the word "story," you may get stuck on the "st" and say "st-st-st-story." Or you
may draw out certain sounds and say "ssssssstory." Individuals who stutter have "fluency disorders". There's a normal period of stuttering once in a while (from about ages
2 to 5) if it persist beyoond his age, the individual may have a fluency disorder.
Resonance (say: re-zen-nents) or voice disorders: if people have trouble hearing
you, it may be the result of a voice disorder. You may sound like you have a cold or like you're talking through your nose. These are
examples of voice disorders.
Language disorders: if you have trouble understanding people when they talk to you or if you have trouble putting words together to express your thoughts, you
may have a language disorder.
Dysphagia (say: dis-fay-je-ah): if you have trouble swallowing water or solids after a medical even such as a stroke, you may have dysphagia.
Who Needs Speech Therapy?
If you have one of the following conditions, you may need speech therapy:
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