Speech Therapy

Speech therapy addresses challenges with speech and communication or with eating, drinking and swallowing for children and adults.

Speech therapy helps with:

• Speech problems – including using your voice properly and not straining and using your muscles to make the right sounds.
• Language and communication problems – such as understanding language, expressing thoughts, or responding to a social situation.
• Swallowing and feeding problems – using the muscles in your mouth and throat to swallow. After a stroke or brain injury, you may need to learn to swallow again.

A speech therapist diagnoses, treats, supports, and cares for children and adults who have difficulties communicating, eating, drinking, and swallowing due to physical or psychological reasons.

Your speech therapist, also known as a speech language pathologist, will first assess your or your child’s problems through observation, talking, or by using relevant tests. They will then develop an individual treatment plan appropriate to each patient’s needs. This may involve activities, exercises, and the use of other strategies.

Speech therapists help children with a variety of conditions including:

• language delay
• difficulties in producing sounds
• stammering and lisps
• hearing impairment
• learning difficulties
• developmental language disorder
• cleft lip and palate
• ·voice disorders
• selective mutism

Adults are helped by speech therapists if they have:

• communication or eating and swallowing problems caused by injury or neurological or degenerative illness, including stroke, head injury, oral cancer, dementias, and Parkinson's disease
• ·voice problems
• stammering
• hearing impairment
• mental health issues
• learning difficulties
• physical disabilities

Speech therapy may be needed by children for childhood speech disorders and adults for speech impairments caused by an injury or illness, such as stroke or brain injury.

If your child is struggling to reach age-appropriate milestones, the earlier speech therapy starts, the better. Speech therapy can begin as early as babies who show signs of communication issues such as little to no interaction with other people in their first three months.

Whilst children develop at different rates and acquire skills at varying rates and orders, if you have any concerns about your child’s development, it is best to seek support from a speech therapist right away. You should not delay in seeking appropriate support and resources for your child as this could only result in them falling further behind and losing time that cannot be replaced.

Speech therapy for seniors is important if they have difficulties communicating and develop speech issues due to the natural aging process.  With age, vocal cords can lose elasticity and larynx muscles can weaken, making talking more difficult. Speech therapy can help seniors re-learn how to speak and communicate effectively again. No age is too old for speech therapy.

Speech and language therapy also plays a vital role when recovering from a stroke or head injury to help manage the communication and swallowing difficulties they may face afterward.

Speech therapy practices and techniques vary depending on the patient and are tailored to what the therapist thinks will achieve the best interaction and results. They will adapt their methods to adults and children accordingly.

Examples of speech therapy for children include:

• interacting through talking and playing
• using books, pictures other objects to help stimulate language development
• modelling correct sounds and syllables during age-appropriate play to teach how to make certain sounds
• strategies and homework for the child and their parent or caregiver on speech therapy at home using games, toys, workbooks, and apps.

Examples of speech therapy for adults include:

• problem solving, memory, organisation, and other activities to improve cognitive communication
• mouth exercises to strengthen oral muscles
• swallowing exercises
• conversational advice and strategies to improve social communication
• resonance frequency breathing exercises to slow breathing down.

If your child has an articulation disorder and they struggle to correctly formulate and produce different phonemes (sounds), your speech therapist will use the seven steps of articulation therapy.

The seven steps include:

1. Isolation - work on achieving a correctly produced sound on its own, such as “s”.
2. Syllables - practice producing the target sound in simple syllables, for example, “soo”, “see”, “ees” and “oosoo”.
3. Words - work on producing the target sound in all positions of the word, including initial, medial, and final positions (such as sun, listen and grass respectively).
4. Phrases and sentences - practice producing the target sound within sentences (for example “The sun went behind the clouds”).
5. Stories - producing the target sound in stories. The child may be read to and asked to retell the story or they may be asked to make up a story themselves.
6. Conversation – using the target sound in conversation and normal discussions, the child’s consistency of use is monitored.
7. Generalisation – the last step that checks the accurate use of the new target sound spontaneously during their in daily speech in different contexts.

The costs of speech therapy will depend on your communication, eating, drinking and swallowing needs; your specialist and chosen Ramsay hospital; and your recommended treatment plan.

Ramsay is recognised by all major medical insurers. Many insurance companies provide coverage for speech therapy that is required due to an acute illness or an accident that requires rehabilitation and if a child is born with a cleft palate. However, they often exclude or limit speech therapy for developmental such as speech delay and articulation disorder, and chronic disorders. We advise you to obtain written authorisation from your insurance provider before commencing your speech therapy.

We have a number of finance options if you are paying for your speech therapy yourself. These include interest-free finance with no deposit and monthly instalments at 0% interest.

After seeing a speech therapist there is no recovery process. You will continue to practice the techniques and tactics they have shown you to improve and maintain your newly learned or relearned communication and swallowing.

Speech therapy is an essential part of rehabilitation after illnesses such as stroke, an injury, an infection, a tumour, surgery, or a progressive disorder.