Communication is an essential skill to attain social, personal, and professional wellbeing. It is a complex system where a person needs to have an understanding of speech and language. But! Often people face difficulties during communication. It could be many types, like.
- Stuttering, where people stutter or find it challenging to say a sentence or word fluently
- Incapable of producing the proper sound of alphabets and words
- Not able to understand and find suitable words to express their views and feelings
- Unable to learn any language and communicate socially
- Getting confused with the structure of languages
These difficulties, as mentioned above, can make a person feel inadequate and restrict their personal, professional, and social growth. And this is the point where a speech therapist or London speech therapy plays a vital role.
What is speech therapy?
Speech therapy is the process of assessing and treating communication and speech-related disorders. The therapy improves communication skills and treats speech disorders with activities including articulation therapy, activities for language invention, and others depending upon the types of speech disorder.
Some of them include.
- Fluency disorders
Stuttering and cluttering are the known fluency disorders that affect the speech, rhythm, and flow of speech. The child or person may find it challenging to produce sounds or have interrupted speech patterns if they suffer from stuttering. While, when suffering from cluttering, they tend to speak fast and merge two words while speaking.
- Resonance disorders
When a child or a person has a blockage or obstruction in their oral or nasal cavities, they tend to alter the vibrations responsible for voice quality. In speech therapy, it is called resonance disorder which also occurs in many due to improper closing of the velopharyngeal valve. Resonance disorder is visible in people with swollen tonsils, neurological disorders, or cleft palate.
- Receptive disorders
As the name suggests, this disorder occurs when the person at the receiving end is unable to understand or process the information others say. A person suffering from this issue shows disinterest while someone talks or cannot follow the directions as stated by someone. People with a head injury, autism, hearing loss, or language disorders show the signs of receptive disorders.
- Articulation disorders
The inability to form certain words correctly is stated as an articulation disorder. A child or person suffering from this disorder may swap, distort or add sounds with words while speaking. A few examples of articulation disorder are saying, “thith in the place of this, wed in the place of red, etc.” It is further divided into four categories, Substitution, Omission, Distortion, and Addition.
- Expressive disorders
This disorder relates to the inability to convey specific information and express it correctly. People suffering from expressive disorder find it hard to form correct sentences. They may use incorrect verbs or say tenses wrongly. This disorder is mostly seen in people with developmental impairments. It could be hearing impairments, down syndrome, etc.
- Cognitive-communication disorders
When a person suffers from a cognitive-communication disorder, he cannot communicate due to hindered thinking ability caused by head injury or trauma. Some people also face this issue when they have biological impairments, stroke, or memory loss.
- Dysarthria
This disorder is caused by nervous system failure or facial paralysis where the ailing person loses control of the facial muscle. The person is unable to speak or control his facial muscle for speech.
- Aphasia
This is an acquired disorder in which a person loses understanding, speaking, reading, and writing abilities. This mainly happens when a person suffers from a stroke or any other brain disorder.
So, some commonly observed speech disorders can get corrected with speech therapy London performed by experienced speech-language pathologists (SLPs). Still, again, the question here arises: Why is speech therapy necessary, and what happens during that?
Why is speech therapy needed?
For any person to survive in this world and excel in various aspects, including social interactions, academics, employment, etc., communication, speech, and language make essential skills. A person without these skills may survive, but he won’t be able to live his life fully.
Therefore, even if anybody develops acquired disorders or speech disorders due to trauma or neurological issues, he must be treated for it. The responsibility mainly goes to parents because communication skills are something which kids start learning when they are about eight weeks old.
Unfortunately, some kids don’t develop their communication skills and are unable to interact and understand signs. For them, their parents should understand their limitations and meet a credible speech therapist in London.
How is speech therapy conducted for children and adults?
For children, speech therapy takes place in a classroom or a small group. Here, children are given different exercises depending on their disorders, needs, and age. During the therapy, children learn to:
- Produce correct sounds of words and alphabets
- Interact from each other through games, activities, objects, and books
Moreover, children are provided homework to practice things taught during therapy so that they can practice it at home with their parents.
For adults, the therapy begins with an assessment. The speech therapist assesses the person for his disorder and the best treatment for it. The therapist works on the person’s language, cognitive-communication, and speech based on the treatment strategy.
The treatment may involve improving conversational tactics, social communication, treating resonance with breathing exercises, etc. The therapist also works on problem-solving, organization, memory enhancement, and retraining for swallowing functions.
Final put
Speech therapy plays an essential role in regaining communication skills if hindered by birth or due to body ailments. However, its success rate depends on the type of disorder and its severity.
If you need help with speech therapy in London for your child or near ones, you can search speech therapy schools online.