Speech Therapy Services
We partner with certified speech and language pathologists to enhance speech, swallowing, memory, cognitive, and social communication skills. Whether it involves aiding an adult in recovering vital communication skills post-injury or assisting someone in enhancing brain function, we take pride in helping individuals better engage with their surroundings.
Speech & Language
Enhance your communication challenges following a stroke, brain injury, or due to deficits from a neurological condition.
Conditions Treated:
Speech Impairments
- Articulation
- Apraxia of speech
- Fluency/stuttering
Language Impairments
- Phonological disorder
- Language disorder/ delay
- Expressive language disorder
- Receptive language disorder
- Social language deficits
Speech & Language
Treatment Strategies:
- Articulation therapy:
- Therapists determine what sounds the person is having difficulty with and provide exercises to teach those specific sounds and patterns.
- Language intervention activities:
- Therapists model language using pictures, books, and objects to improve vocabulary and grammar.
Cognitive Communication
Improve your ability to pay attention to a conversation, stay on topic, remember information, respond accurately, understand jokes or metaphors, and enhance your ability to follow directions.
Impairments Treated:
- Attention: selective concentration)
- Memory: recall of facts, procedures, and past & future events
- Perception: interpretation of sensory information
- Insight & Judgment: understanding one’s own limitations & what they mean
- Organization: arranging ideas in a useful order
- Orientation: knowing where, when, & who you are, as well as why you’re there
- Language: words for communication
- Processing speed: quick thinking & understanding
- Problem-solving: finding solutions to obstacles
- Reasoning: logically thinking through situations
- Executive functioning: making a plan, acting it out, evaluating success, & adjusting
- Metacognition: thinking about how you think
Cognitive Communication
Treatment Strategies:
- Restoring cognitive function:
- Exercises to retrain discrete cognitive processes- i.e. attention
- Internal memory strategies or spaced retrieval training to solidify memories
- Practice tasks that are difficult, while offering support, to build independence
- Compensate Techniques:
- External strategies for improving memory - i.e. memory books, smartphone apps
- Teaching strategies for approaching problems to strengthen executive functioning - i.e. “plan, do, review”
- Establishing routines and schedules
- Education
- Teaching family members and caregivers to recognize and help the client overcome his or her deficits
Swallowing Disorders
We all encounter occasional difficulties with swallowing. It could be struggling to chew a tough piece of meat, experiencing a gag reflex, or needing to put in extra effort to swallow. However, for someone with a swallowing disorder, these challenges are persistent. This condition, known as dysphagia, affects swallowing regularly.
Phases of Swallowing
- Oral phase (mouth) - sucking, chewing
- Pharyngeal phase (throat) -starting the swallow and moving food down throat
- Esophageal phase - opening and closing of the esophogus (tube that connects mouth to stomach
Signs and Syptoms:
- Coughing during or immediately after eating or drinking
- Frequent throat clearing after eating or drinking
- Wet or gurgly voice while or after eating or drinking
- Sensation of something stuck in the throat or chest after eating or drinking
- Difficulty chewing or swallowing, requiring extra effort or time
- Food or liquid leakage from the mouth
- Food getting lodged in the mouth
- Breathing difficulties following meals
- Unintentional weight loss
Swallowing Disorder
Treatment:
- Posture corrections of head/neck/trunk to improve swallowing
- Strength training muscles used in chewing and swallowing
- Swallowing strategies
- Tips and tricks to make swallowing easier
- Caregiver training
- Patient education
- Education on proper nutrition
ELDERBERRY
Healthcare & Physical Therapy Inc.
(310) 974 4737
get social
