Speech therapist

Speech Therapy is a field of healthcare that focuses on the evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of communication disorders, speech disorders, and swallowing disorders. Speech therapists, also known as Speech-Language Pathologists, are the healthcare professionals who practice speech therapy.

Overview

Speech therapists work with patients who have problems with speech, language, cognition, voice, swallowing, and fluency. These problems can be due to a variety of causes, such as developmental delays, stroke, brain injuries, learning disabilities, intellectual disabilities, cerebral palsy, dementia, and hearing loss.

Education and Training

In order to become a speech therapist, an individual must earn a master's degree in speech-language pathology. This program typically includes courses in anatomy, physiology, neurology, genetics, human and animal communication, linguistics, language development, acoustic, psychology, and statistics. In addition to coursework, students must complete a clinical practicum and a supervised postgraduate professional experience.

Roles and Responsibilities

Speech therapists assess, diagnose, treat, and help to prevent communication and swallowing disorders in patients. They work with people who cannot produce speech sounds or cannot produce them clearly, those with speech rhythm and fluency problems, such as stuttering, people with voice disorders, and those with problems understanding and producing language.

Treatment Techniques

Speech therapists use a variety of techniques to improve communication. These include articulation therapy, language intervention activities, oral motor therapy, and swallowing therapy.

See Also

• Audiology
• Occupational therapy
• Physical therapy

References

Speech therapist Resources
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