Speech Therapist in Vancouver working as speech & language pathologist

A speech and language pathologist, also known as a Speech teacher or speech therapist works with the children in different ways and treats them to make them a confident and successful citizen of society. It is essential because without communication and interacting with other people, you can not understand other people's ideas and thoughts. Today we will discuss different speech therapy disorders and how a speech and language pathologist treat speech and language disorders.

What is Speech Therapy?

Speech therapy is the assessment and treatment of speech and communication disorders. It is performed by speech-language pathologists (SLPs), also known as speech therapists. Speech therapy techniques are used to improve the communication level of the patient. However, treatment varies depending on the medical condition of the patient. One speech therapy approach includes strengthening the muscles used in speech, while speech drills sometimes need to enhance the clarity of voice. Another method is sound production practice to improve articulation. It is mostly required to treat speech disorders of childhood or speech impairments in adults due to illness, brain injury, or stroke.

Articulation disorders

The inability to properly announce certain word sounds is known as an Articulation disorder. The child who faces this disorder may swap, drop, distort, or add word sounds. One example of this order is when the world “this” would be saying “thith.” The listener cannot understand correctly what is being said.

Resonance disorders

It occurs when regular airflow obstructs in nasal or oral cavities and alters the vibrations responsible for voice quality. Resonance disorders are associated with neurological disorders, swollen tonsils, and cleft palate. Most commonly, it occurs when the velopharyngeal valve doesn’t close properly.

Fluency disorders

A fluency disorder is the most common speech disorder which affects the speed, flow, and rhythm of speech. In this disorder, speech is interrupted by unusual stops, word reputations such as b-b-boy. Cluttering and stuttering are two most types of fluency disorders. In cluttering, a person speaks fastly and merges words. While in stuttering, a person has trouble in getting out a sound that is blocked, interrupted, or repeats all words.

Expressive disorder

Difficulty in expressing information or conveying your ideas to others is known as Expressive language disorder. It leads to the trouble in forming accurate sentences or incorrect use of tenses. Mostly it is associated with developmental impairments such as hearing loss or Down syndrome. Besides, head trauma can be the reason for expressive disorder.

Receptive disorder

The person with receptive disorder cannot understand what the other person is saying. Consequently, it shows a lack of interest in someone speaking ideas. Other receptive language disorder symptoms include autism, hearing loss, and head injury.

Cognitive-communication disorders

Difficulty in communication due to brain injury is referred to as cognitive-communication disorder. In this disorder, you lost your thinking power. Cognitive disorder can lead to speaking, listening, and memory issues. Problem or puzzle-solving can be a challenge for people with this disorder. Abnormal brain development, brain injury, stroke, or other neurological disorder are the leading cause of cognitive-communication disorders.

Aphasia

Another speech disorder is Aphasia, which is acquired communication disorder and affects the person's ability to understand and speak. Besides, it also affects the ability to write and read. The most common cause of Aphasia is stroke and other brain disorders.

Articulation Skills/Speech Intelligibility

Articulation is the ability to move lips, tongue, palate, and jaw to produce the speech sounds called phonemes. A speech and language pathologist at Vancouver speech therapy center offers this service to the children and tells them how to articulate the words, for example, when word b sound is inhaled and exhaled when turning our voice on. First, we bring our tensed lips together to stop and build the airflow, afterward release the airflow by parting the lips. If a child's articulation skills are compromised due to any reason, his intelligibility will also decrease as compared to other children of the same age. It is also referred to as speech intelligibility, how well people can understand child speech. At Vancouver speech therapy, our SLPs coordinate with your child to teach them how to produce these specific sound patterns and increase speech intelligibility.

Receptive Language/Listening Skills

Receptive language means the child's ability to understand the language. It seems children have more persuasive language skills than expressive language skills (What they can say). If your child lacks these listening skills, a speech and language pathologist can help him to teach him new vocabulary and use of that knowledge in different directions while your child is participating in a conversation with others.

Expressive Language Skills

When speech involves physical motor ability to talk, symbolic language is used to convey the message. Gestural symbols help you to send your message to others such as Shrugging the shoulders indicating, “I do not know,” raising of one eyebrow means you are surprised by something, and Waving means Bye-bye. Expressive language then refers to what your child says. Speech-language pathologists can help your child to learn these gestural symbols and new words to form phrases and sentences. It will help your child to communicate with others in the language of expression.

Cognitive-Communication Skills

Vancouver speech therapy center also works with children born with cognitive-communication disorders such as abstract reasoning, attention impairment, and executive functions (planning, monitoring, and problem-solving). Some children acquired these deficits through a head injury, stroke, or degenerative disorders. Our speech and language therapist builds these skills for your child and helps them in restoring attention.

Social/Pragmatic Language

It refers to the way a person uses language to communicate. Social and pragmatic language involves three primary communication skills such as

● Changing language according to the place and people, for example, we talk differently with a child and adult

● Using language in different ways to communicate such as (greeting others, asking questions, gain information or protesting)

● Follow conversation rules, for example (understanding verbal and nonverbal cues, taking turns during a conversation, and staying on the main topic). A speech and language therapist teaches your child to learn social language skills to participate effectively in discussions and social gatherings.

Speech Fluency/Stuttering

Stuttering is the most common communication disorder that affects speech fluency and characterizes by breaks in the flow of speech. Typically it is referred to as disfluencies and begins in childhood. However, some disfluencies are normal, but some disfluencies affect your communication ability. In stuttering, these behaviors are observed, such as repetitions, interjections, prolongations, and blocks. However, some severe cases of stuttering are also seen, such as tension in the face, shoulder, chest, eye, nose flaring, and neck. If your child faces odd facial movements, stomping of feet, clenched fists, and unusual motor movements in hands, legs, and arms, must consult speech and language pathologists.

Voice and Resonance

A set of disorders that affect the vocal folds that produce voice. This disorder occurs due to vocal cord paralysis, nodules or polyps growth on the vocal folds, hoarseness or aphonic (loss of voice). Resonance is the quality of voice that is determined by the balance of sound vibration in nasal, oral, and pharyngeal cavities during the speaking. Abnormal resonance occurs when there is an obstruction in one of these cavities; it leads to the hyponasality or cul-de-sac resonance.

A common voice disorder in children is hoarseness due to vocal abuse. It occurs due to excessive talking, throat clearing, and coughing, which leads to the vocal folds' damage or strain. Our Speech and language pathologist also works with children who experience this voice and resonance disorder and help them to repair the damage of vocal folds.

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC0 are used to express ideas, needs, thoughts, and wants. AAC is used to make a facial expression, use symbols or pictures, or write (ASHA website). When a child has such severe disorder, our speech and language pathologist communicates with the child and his family and treats him with the AAC system instead of traditional speech methods.

Oral-motor/feeding and swallowing therapy

Speech and language pathologists can help in a variety of oral exercises such as facial massage, jaw, and lip exercise. They can guide how to strengthen mouth muscles for drinking, eating, and swallowing. They introduce different food textures and create awareness among children and parents during eating and swallowing. Even Speech-language pathologists can be trained for pediatric swallowing and feeding issues in addition to language and speech issues because speech and language pathologists have enough knowledge about the structures and functions of oral cavities and beyond.

We are educating and empowering YOU on how to help your child best

A speech and language pathologist can educate and empower the parents and child. They invest their time and interact with your child at Vancouver therapy center.ca. They teach the children about their daily routine, talk to him, read to him, and boost their confidence. A speech and language pathologist provides opportunities for the child to learn and communicate different speech patterns. Once the child is equipped with this knowledge and skills, his confidence boosts and builds and he can communicate in a better way to the people. Besides, they ask questions on a daily basis and work closely with your child.

What happens during speech therapy?

It begins with an assessment by a Speech and language therapist who identifies the communication disorder type and treatment accordingly.

Speech therapy for children

Speech therapy can be carried out in a small group or classroom depending on the speech disorder. Also, it varies depending on the child's age, needs, and communication level.

A speech and language pathologist can play their role by Interacting through playing and talking, using objects, pictures, and books as a part of language intervention to help stimulate language development. By correct use of sounds and syllabus for a child according to their age, teach them how to use certain sounds.

Speech and language pathologists provide strategies and techniques for the child and parents how to do speech therapy at home.

How long do you need speech therapy?

The duration of speech therapy varies from person to person, and it depends on a few factors such as

● Age of child

● Frequency of therapy

● Underlying medical condition

● Severity and type of speech disorder

However, speech therapy cannot complete in one session and demands multiple sessions. Some speech and language disorders improve with time and age, while some continue to adulthood and require long term therapy and maintenance.
Especially a communication disorder caused by stroke or any medical condition improves with time.

Bottom line

To sum up, Speech therapy can help treat speech and language disorders in children and adults. Speech and language pathologists can play an important role in educating and treating children living with these disorders. It is necessary to boost up self-confidence in children as well as improve communication skills. By treating speech therapy, many medical conditions could be improved. Vancouver Speech therapy.ca is working to cope with these speech and language disorders and make people's lives easier.

Vancouver Speech Therapy

Speech Pathologist in Vancouver

We provide variety of speech and language therapy services in Vancouver, Canada.

Our experienced speech and language pathologists offer from evaluation to diagnosis to treatment to the children and adults of all ages.

Speech Language Pathology