What are Speech Therapy Programs?

Speech therapy is a component of rehabilitation medicine. It is a discipline that evaluates, treats, and studies various language and communication disorders.

Speech therapy

Speech therapy is

Language or speech is a tool for humans to communicate ideas. In people's ordinary communication, the two words of language and speech are often mixed and do not affect the understanding of meaning. However, from the perspective of linguistic pathology, There are often differences in definitions.

Language refers to the customary symbol system in human society. People use these symbols to achieve the purpose of communication. Language includes the ability to use (express) and accept (understand) symbols, the ability to use (write) and accept (read) symbols in written languages, and gesture language and mute.

Language barriers refer to obstacles in the application of words in the process of spoken and non-spoken languages. The typical language disorder is speech retardation caused by cerebral dysfunction of aphasia caused by stroke and traumatic brain injury.

Speech is the mechanical process of the formation of sound language (spoken language). In order to make spoken expressions loud and clear, it is necessary to have normal articulation organ structure and neuromuscular activities related to speech production.

Speech disorder refers to difficulty in pronunciation, difficulty in producing voice, interruption of airflow, or difficulty in speech rhythm. The typical speech disorder is dysarthria. The most common dysarthria in clinical practice are motor dysarthria caused by stroke, brain trauma, and Parkinson's disease. In addition, the articulation disorder caused by abnormal articulation organs is organic articulation disorder, which is represented by cleft palate.

The distinction between language and speech is mainly for speech therapists to understand and accurately formulate rehabilitation treatment plans for various language and speech disorders.

1. Training and instruction are the center of language therapy, including the utilization of hearing, promotion of language understanding, oral expression, restoration or improvement of articulation function, and improvement of speech intelligibility. The guidance mainly includes the training of the patients themselves, as well as the guidance of the family members of the patients, especially the training and precautions of the families of the critically ill patients and the parents of the children.

2. Manual intervention For some patients with speech disorders, traditional medical methods can be used to help improve the motor function limitation related to speech production. This method is suitable for motor articulation disorders, especially in severe cases. Also suitable for patients with severe neurological swallowing disorders.

3. Assistive devices In order to compensate for the limited function, it is sometimes necessary to assemble assistive devices. For example, when the pharyngeal muscles of severe motor articulation disorders cannot be closed, the patient can wear an iliac crest to improve nasalization.

4. Alternative methods When it is difficult to achieve a normal level of communication with severe speech disorders, we must consider using alternative communication methods, such as gestures, communication boards, and speech communicators.

1. Present the stimulus prepared in advance to the patient, such as pictures, text or objects.

2. If the patient responds correctly (positive response), tell him to answer correctly (positive reinforcement).

3. If the patient's response is incorrect (wrong response), report it as wrong (negative reinforcement).

4. The patient and the therapist's efforts, the patient's positive response increased and fixed.

5. After the positive reaction is fixed, move up one stage.

6. Repeat until the target phase is reached.