Did you know that adults can also struggle with speech disorders? Some disorders develop in childhood and require lifelong management, but others can develop well into adulthood. Fortunately, adult speech therapy for speech disorders can help you find your voice once again.
Speech therapy is a field of healthcare focused on helping people communicate effectively. It actually encompasses more than just speech disorders; a speech therapist (also known as a speech-language pathologist) can help with language disorders, cognitive changes affecting communication, and even chewing and swallowing.
At Preferred Physical Therapy, our team of therapists can help diagnose and address several common speech-related difficulties. No matter your needs, we’re here to help! If you’d like to learn more, schedule an appointment today.
Common Adult Speech Disorders
A speech disorder is a condition that makes it difficult for you to create the sounds necessary for speaking. It differs from a language disorder, which impacts your general ability to understand or express yourself with language.
Here are some of the most common speech disorders affecting adults:
Stuttering
- Stuttering causes someone to have difficulty pronouncing certain words or sounds (called disfluencies). You might repeat part of a word or have trouble getting a word out at all. While this happens to everyone at some point in their life, someone who has a stutter will experience this often enough that it negatively affects their quality of life.
Apraxia:
- Every time you speak, your brain sends signals to the muscles in your mouth to form the necessary shapes. When someone has apraxia, those messages get disrupted. They know what they want to say but simply can’t get their mouth muscles to work properly
Dysarthria:
- Dysarthria is somewhat similar to apraxia in that it affects the muscles in your mouth and makes it difficult to say what you’re thinking. Unlike apraxia, which results from damage to the brain, dysarthria results from weakness in the muscles used in talking, including your face, lips, and tongue. Dysarthria and apraxia sometimes develop together.
While living with these conditions can have a big impact on your quality of life, speech therapy for speech disorders can help improve your symptoms and overall ability to communicate.
What To Expect During Speech Therapy for Speech Disorders
At Preferred Physical Therapy, we tailor our treatments to the patient. Different speech disorders have different needs, and no two treatment plans are alike
For example, stuttering almost always develops in childhood; many children eventually outgrow it. For an adult who stutters, we’ll work on managing their condition. This includes strategies for helping with the stutter itself but also working with them to manage anxiety around the condition so that they can speak more fluently in different day-to-day situations.
In contrast, someone might develop apraxia or dysarthria in adulthood. Traumatic brain injuries and stroke can both impact our speaking ability, and many people struggle to adapt to these new speaking and communication difficulties.
Our therapists can help you practice using your mouth muscles to teach them to make the proper sounds again. We can also help you find new ways to communicate to continue participating in daily life–even if speaking is more challenging.
No matter your needs, our team offers speech therapy for speech disorders throughout the Deerfield Beach, FL area. If you think you might benefit, request an initial consultation today!
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