Hire the Speech therapist private Lincolnshire for clearing Issues

Speech therapy is the technology to sort stuttering and other voice concerned issues. They can be among children. It has a very broad label for different types of therapies that can give for children.  It will be practiced under the guidance of language therapists and speech pathologists will give for children.

   Speech therapist private Lincolnshire conducted on therapist’s clinic, home, and hospital or in a school. There are versatile activities like sound or word repetitive habits. This therapist guides children with delays or disorders in the areas:

·       Vocabulary Potential:

The child knowledge of what things are known as the potential to know those words when spoken as well as to remember and say the word when demanded.

·       Social Language Skills:

To develop the child capable of using language to contact others and will be able to take social rules of play and conversation.

·       Book Skills:

The child’s talent to read and use pre-reading talents like book handling, recognizing print, etc

The approach of the language therapist is to create a relaxing and comfortable atmosphere for the child to boost the speech naturally. The most stuttering children progress over a duration and so it is good to monitor the success. The therapists must connect the child fact to face. The therapists teach them how to create words, how to speak slowly and try to relief the child while conversation.

The language therapy shapes the fluency therapy in which muscles, jaws as well as tongue are trained to slower down the speech employing breath control. Most of the children want their parents as their teacher because they are comfortable with them.

·       Grammar Skills:

The child potential to employ grammatical pointers to create whole sentences

·       Question Skills:

The child’s ability can question of versatile structures.

The speech therapist will employ a several techniques to check what sounds the child uses and what sounds he can give.

Speech therapist private Bassetlaw shall help with these challenges:

1.     Better Articulation with the help of speech therapy:

For people affected by impaired speech, articulation is important. The articulation disorder is the development of the speech sounds attributed by omissions, additions or distortions that will interfere with diligently. If people learn to decorate words properly, they enhance their interaction skills and confidence.  Some can develop up with the problem of the lack of articulator exercises.

There are various ways in which SLPs which support people decorate words better. This game has dice and boards.

2.     Enhance swallowing  with speech therapy:

People have speech disorders ailed by hurdles swallowing as well. It is also as swallowing disorders, dysphagia or other neurological problems. They have exercises and techniques to improve the oral intake method and decrease the problem of aspiration.

So, speech therapists guide the patients by advising the patient by raking deep breaths before the encounter and balance their breaths while talking. It is necessary to talk slowly. These speech therapists help in speaking or pronouncing well in a specific way.

Read our another blog post : Talented Speech therapist Private Lincolnshire makes speech clearer

Talented Speech therapist Private Lincolnshire makes speech clearer

A speech therapist is a person who deals with people suffering from speech disorders. A speech disorder implies a problem with a real production of sounds whereas in language disorder refers to those hurdles where an individual faces problem understanding and putting words together to convey their thoughts and ideas.

Speech therapy is a method that concentrates on supporting children with swallowing potentialities or impaired speech. Speech therapists also known as speech-language pathologists are skilled, trained and highly educated professionals.

Becoming a speech therapist is an intimidating and challenging task for anyone searching a healthcare profession where they will both teach and teach simultaneously while being a positive and strong appealing to others. The phases of a highly descriptive one demanding a substantial educational commitment, but the attributes in this profession are different. One can visit the speech therapist for clearing their hurdles while speaking.

There are various spheres in which Speech therapist private Lincolnshire deals with. Let’s discuss some of them are:

• Helps in curing the verbal problem:

They help in stuttering that will give in problems like lacking in speaking fluently. A speech therapist will help the affected patient in improving their stuttering to an extent where it comes.

• They give sessions for swallowing:

The sessions will vary accordingly and some people may take benefit from exercises concentrating on giving strength in certain muscles, whereas others may use “practice” in swallowing. It is good to use instrumental exercises so that the swallowing will be checked in a significant way. The instrument check-up will make them understood better and help them in enable planning.

• Support in articulation disorders:

In this, the speech therapist helps in curing difficulties generating sounds in syllables or pronouncing words incorrectly to the point. It will till that listeners will not understand what a person conveys.

• Voice disorders:

There are an issue with the volume, pitch, or the standard of the voice that disturbs may also cause pain or hurdle for a child while communicating.

• Better presentation language therapy:

The speech disorder has the production of speech sounds attributed by omissions, distortions, and additions to interfere with the intelligence. They enhance learning skills and confidence. If people learn to articulate or present their words properly, they improve their communication skills and will power.

Speech therapist private Bassetlaw helps in dealing with conditions like dysphasia or swallowing disorder. These disorders can be the result of Alzheimer’s disease, brain injury, stroke. They use various techniques like:

Head positioning technique

Swallow maneuvers

Modification of liquids and food have taken

It is significant to find a therapist for getting the assurance that the speech-language is certified or not. They are skilled and proficient people who know how to help in talking and playing, books, using images, ongoing events to activate language progress.

Articulation or exercises consist of having the therapist model correcting the syllables and sounds in sentences as well as the word for a child. Even the therapist knows to correct vocabulary and repetition exercises for correcting language talents.

Read our another blog post : What does speech and language therapy involve?

Cognitive Communication Disorder (what is it, presentation, causes, diagnosis, therapy input)

Cognitive communication disorder (CCD) is when a person's communication style changes, affecting their communication effectiveness. The effects of CCD can dramatically vary but, whatever the presentation, the impact is often devastating for the individual and their family and friends. CCD occurs following brain injury.

Presentation of cognitive communication disorder

How CCD presents varies greatly and depends on what cognitive functions are affected by the brain injury. These then affect communication.

Examples of CCD presentations:

Reserved talkers can become verbose (saying more than is needed) and unable to stop talking.

Social, outgoing people can become withdrawn, answering questions with one or two words and not initiating asking questions to others.

Communicative behaviours can become ‘extreme’. For example: 

A person may have reduced eye contact as they do not look to you when you speak to them or when they respond to you. 

A person may make so much eye contact that it feels uncomfortable for the person they are speaking to.

These changes in communication style can be difficult for individuals, their family and friends to come to terms with.


Causes of cognitive communication disorder

• CCD can be caused by any type of brain injury, such as:
• 
  
• Stroke
• 
  
• Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
• 
  
• Hypoxic brain injury
• 
  
• Brain tumours or metastases

Diagnosing cognitive communication disorder
In order to establish if someone has CCD, it needs to be understood how the person used to communicated. Were they talkative? Did they swear? How were they with strangers? How were they with their family and friends? This information needs to be gathered from their people who know them well. Only once the individual’s ‘baseline’ (how they normally are) is understood, can it then be considered whether the individual has CCD.

It is also important to consider whether other factors may also be impacting the individuals communication; for example, people with depression may make less eye contact and talk quietly. Once their mood improves then these changes reverse. Thus, this is not CCD. CCD is when the behaviour change is due to a brain injury.

Impacts of cognitive communication disorder
Talking to people with CCD can be difficult for others.

For example, if a person is not making eye contact, is talking in a quiet, monotone voice and is responding to you in short answers but is not asking anything back, then it may appear that that person does not want to talk to you.

When I worked with a woman, Barbara, who presented like this she was really upset that other people were not making an effort to talk to her. She found it difficult to change her behaviour (e.g. making more eye contact with her conversation partner), even after weeks of therapy targeting this change. 

For Barbara, it was essential that the people around her understood that she enjoyed having conversations, although it did appear that she did.


If a person is very talkative to the extent that you are finding it difficult to have a two-way conversation with them, then it's is not rewarding or enjoyable for you. It can be frustrating to have conversations like this.

With these changes in communication, it is not surprising that people with CCD are likely to lose friends and their relationships break down. They may also experience difficulties in their employment. This can make the individual isolated.



Therapy Input

Some people with CCD may respond to feedback to change their communication with others. This is typically achieved by raising the person’s awareness of their behaviour; this can be achieved by them watching a recording of themselves and reflecting upon it and/or being provided with feedback from others (e.g. “When you look down, I think you don’t want to talk”). It is agreed what they will work on (e.g. looking up to others when they speak to you) and then this skill is practised in therapy sessions.

However, many people with CCD have difficulties changing their behaviour. This is due to their cognitive abilities being affected by their brain injury. For example, if they have memory difficulties, they may not be able to remember the strategies that they could use. If they have executive functioning difficulties then they may not be able to regulate themselves, to initiate behaviour and to have insight into their difficulties.

Consequently, intervention for people with CCD often instead works with the person’s family. This will typically involve discussing why the individuals’ communication style has changed and how this impacts them day to day. Therapists and family members should then work together to identify what strategies others can do to support the individual. 

For example, Tom had a hypoxic brain injury following a heart attack. As a result, he became verbose and tangential (going off topic). He talked so much and bounced from topic to topic that it was very difficult for others to have a conversation with him. It was hard to understand what he was talking about. He also had memory difficulties so he could not remember that he had CCD which prevented him from using any strategies. When he went out with his family, he would start talking to every person he saw and would talk to them for a long time. This made all trips out very long and exhausting for both Tom and his family. Prior to his hypoxic brain injury, Tom would not make conversation with strangers.

It was found that the best strategy to support Tom was to give him a task to complete. When he went food shopping, he was given a list of items to find. Giving him this task meant that he was focused on this instead and so did not talk to every person in the shop. This meant that Tom was able to keep going out with his family and was involved in the trips. 

The strategies that people will benefit from vary from person to person. Because this communication difficulty arises from changes to cognition, therapeutic input may be delivered from a speech and language therapist, neuropsychologist or occupational therapist. Often these individuals will work together.

Further information

If you would like further information on CCD, Headway has a great explanation of the changes that happen: https://www.headway.org.uk/about-brain-injury/individuals/effects-of-brain-injury/communication-problems/cognitive-communication-difficulties/

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In summary, cognitive communication disorder is an acquired communication disorder following brain injury. It affects our way of communicating. It’s presentation varies greatly, depending on which cognitive abilities are affected. These changes can be difficult to adjust to for the individual and their family and friends. Communication is a two-way process and so we have to adapt to the individual with CCD.  Speech Therapist for Adults.

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Aphasia (receptive and expressive aphasia, causes and the different types)

Aphasia, also known as dysphasia, is an acquired language disorder. Aphasia affects people's understanding and/ or expression of language. People can acquire aphasia from a variety of different conditions. Read on to learn more about aphasia.

Aphasia vs dysphasia

Aphasia refers to the total loss of language. Dysphasia refers to impaired language.

Technically speaking, the term dysphasia is more appropriate for most people. However, a lot of the terminology is very similar (e.g. dysphasia, dysphagia, dysarthria, dyspraxia, dyslexia, dysgraphia etc.) and so that is why I typically use the term aphasia.

Why do people get aphasia?

Aphasia is caused from damage to the language centres in the brain. This can be from a variety of condition such as:
A stroke

A different type of brain injury (e.g. traumatic brain injury, subdural haematoma or subdural haemorrhage)

Brain tumour or brain metastasis 

Dementia

Most people have their language centres in the left side of their cerebral cortex (the ‘top’ bit of your brain). Damage to this cortex can result in aphasia. People’s own individual profiles of their receptive and expressive abilities depends upon where was damaged in their brain. 

There is much debate as to which areas of the brain are involved in different language functions; Tremblay and Dick’s (2016) paper ‘Broca and Wernicke are dead, or moving past the classic model of language neurobiology’ includes a great summary of research implicating different brain regions and argues that many more areas are involved than previous models include.

Receptive vs expressive aphasia 

Discussing aphasia in terms of someone having either receptive or expressive aphasia can mean different things to different people. For example, some people will use expressive aphasia to refer to Broca’s aphasia and receptive aphasia to refer to Wernicke’s aphasia. However, this can be confusing because people with Broca’s aphasia can still have difficulties with understanding language and difficulties with understanding language is called receptive aphasia.

The terms fluent and non-fluent aphasia are now more commonly used. This then allows for the individual’s receptive and expressive language abilities to be defined across the four different language modalities. Doing so, can provide a much more detailed picture of the individual and their aphasia.

For example:

Non-fluent aphasia with moderate receptive aphasia (understanding of spoken SVO sentences and written SV sentences), and severe expressive aphasia (able to say some single words (nouns) and unable to write or copy single words).

Before an overview of some of the different types of aphasia, we should consider the four different language modalities.

The Four Language Modalities
Receptive Language
Receptive language refers to understanding spoken and written language.

This is assessed at the single word level, sentence level and paragraph and discourse level. There are different abilities within these different levels; for example, at the sentence level, people are assessed as to whether they understand active and passive sentences, sentences with embedded clauses and different phrases (e.g. prepositional phrases). Higher level language assessments look at the ability of individuals to inference from spoken and written language.

Higher level receptive language difficulties can be ‘hidden’ if you are having, for example, a social chat with someone. For some individuals it is not until they return to doing higher level tasks, such as returning to work, that these difficulties may become apparent.

It is important to have a clear idea of what a person is and is not understanding so that information can be tailored to them. For example, to have discussions around medical procedures, decisions such as assigning a Power of Attorney.

Expressive language 
Expressive language refers to people’s use of spoken and written language, that is their talking and writing. This is also assessed at the single word level, sentence level and paragraph and discourse level.

A person’s ability to use spoken language is different to a speech disorder, such as dysarthria or apraxia of speech. For example, a person with dysarthria will be saying words but they will be unclear; whereas a person with expressive language difficulties will have difficulties accessing the words they want to say or saying a whole sentence (versus a few words). People may have expressive language difficulties in isolation or in conjunction with a speech disorder.

Types of aphasia 
There are several different types of aphasia. For the purposes of this article, we will cover an introduction to non-fluent and fluent aphasia as well as anomic and global aphasia. Further articles will discuss different subtypes of aphasia.

Non-fluent aphasia (Broca’s aphasia)
Generally speaking, non-fluent aphasia is when a person’s understanding is better then expression.
That is, they may understand sentences but only be able to say single words. This does not mean that people in non-fluent aphasia understand everything. In fact, most people with non-fluent aphasia still have some difficulties understanding spoken and written language; these difficulties may be higher level and therefore not instantly obvious, e.g. if you are having a social chat with them. 

People with non-fluent aphasia may only be able to say or write single words or short phrases. Typically, nouns are easier to access, thus people with non-fluent aphasia may only say nouns. For example, instead of saying “The boy plays with the car”, a person with non-fluent aphasia may only say “boy … car”. Some people may be at say more than this but generally complete sentences are not said or written. Swear words are often easier to access and so a person with aphasia may start swearing more than they did previously.

People may also have a few phrases that they can access; this can be social phrases such as “good morning” or “thank you”. Sometimes these phrases can be meaningful, but sometimes these are not what the person means at all. For example, a lady I worked with would often say “which”
when trying to say other words.

People with non-fluent aphasia can have good insight into their difficulties.
Broca’s aphasia is one type of non-fluent aphasia.

Fluent aphasia (Wernicke’s aphasia) 
Generally speaking, fluent aphasia is when people's expressive abilities are better than their understanding. That is, they speak and write better than they understand spoken and written language.

For example, I worked with a lady who could not understand a single word. If I gave her an instruction such as to point to her nose or look to the ceiling, she could not do it. When I put two objects in front of her, e.g. a cup and a pen, and modelled to her that I wanted her to select the object which I named, she could not do it. I then gave her the single written words e.g. pen, and she could not match the word to the object.

This lady love to carry around her handbag. When I gestured to her handbag she picked it up and began getting out the objects one by one. As she got out the objects, she named them. She said “brush” when she got out hairbrush and then used it on her hair. She got out her purse and said “money” before placing it aside. She called out a bag of pistachios and said “I don't know where these are from”.

But when I said something to her, e.g. “Do you like pistachios?”, she could not respond.
How can this happen?

When she had an object or a point of reference, she can make appropriate comments. However, she does not understand what people say to her; she doesn’t understand any words. So, she could make comments if you were sat completing an activity with her, but she couldn’t engage in a conversation with you because she cannot understand what you say.

Also, if she tried to talk more about items or things that did not have a point of reference, she would begin saying non-words (neologisms). People with fluent aphasia may produce ‘full sentences’, yet they may contain non-words that can make it difficult to understand what they are trying to say.
Not all people with fluent aphasia have this severity of understanding spoken words and written words. This is why it is important to map the individual's strengths and difficulties.

Wernicke’s aphasia is one type of fluent aphasia. 
Anomic aphasia
People with anomic aphasia typically have intact understanding of spoken language but their expression is characterised by word finding difficulties; word finding difficulties is also known as anomia and so this is where the name for this subtype comes from. For some people, these word finding difficulties can be really distressing.

In anomic aphasia, reading and writing can be either intact or impaired.
(N.B. All people experience word finding difficulties some times; other factors can affect this such as our stress and tiredness levels.)
Global aphasia

Global aphasia can refer to either of the following:

A person is not understanding any spoken or written language and have an unreliable yes/no response

Having language impairment all domains (listening, reading, speaking and writing). The extent of the impairment in the domains can vary.

Due to these different definitions, it is always best to clarify with a speech and language therapist more about the individual’s profile, if this term is used.

People with global aphasia can still be great interactors by using contextual cues to infer understanding and are able to use gestures, pointing and facial expressions to communicate. This means that if they see someone knock something over, they may laugh at it. They may be able to point to their favourite yoghurt if you offer them a choice (e.g. hold two different flavours for them to choose from).

You can have meaningful interactions by using objects of reference to support you both. I like looking through photographs together or doing an activity together (e.g. singing, dancing, crafting etc.).

Summary

Aphasia refers to an acquired language disorder which can affect people’s understanding of spoken and written language (receptive language) and their ability to use spoken and written language (expressive language). There are many different types of aphasia. Every person’s strengths and difficulties are different; it is important to have a clear understanding of what people do understand so that information can be provided in an accessible way to them. 

What else would you like to know about aphasia with Speech Therapy for Adults? Let me know in the comments or send me an email.

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Speech and language therapy (what is it, who has it, how do you become one & what is the salary?)

Speech and language therapy refers to the assessment and therapeutic input provided by speech and language therapists for people with communication and/or swallowing difficulties. People of all ages can experience communication and swallowing difficulties. Speech and language therapists need to complete an approved undergraduate or postgraduate degree in speech and language therapy and be registered with the appropriate bodies in their country.

What is speech and language therapy?

Speech and language therapy refers to the assessment, support, and treatment or therapy for children and adults with difficulties with their communication and swallowing. Communication difficulties include voice, speech, language and social communication difficulties.

People can receive speech and language therapy across a variety of settings, such as at school, home, hospital or in a clinic. The length and type of speech and language therapy input varies according to many factors such as the cause of the difficulty, the prognosis of recovery, the engagement/motivation of the individual and the individuals’ cognitive ability (as this can affect their ability to engage with certain therapy activities).

Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs) work with the individual with the communication and/or swallowing difficulty, their family, carers and other professionals such as doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, psychologists, teachers and SENCOs. SLTs are Allied Health Professionals (AHP); AHPs make up the third biggest workforce in the NHS after doctors and nurses.

Who do speech and language therapists for adults work with?

Speech and language therapists work with people of all ages who have communication and swallowing difficulties; from newborns through to individuals who are in the end stage of their life.

Typically, speech and language therapists either work with children or adults and there are many different specialisms within these age groups. Some therapists may work across all age groups in a particular specialism, e.g. dysfluency (stammering).

The following is a list of different groups of people who speech and language therapists work with:

Children

New-born babies (who are having difficulty taking milk)

Children with speech difficulties, e.g. unable to make specific sounds such as ‘s’ or motor speech disorder secondary to a condition such as cerebral palsy.

Children with a language delay

Children with a language disorder, e.g. developmental language disorder (DLD).

Children with selective mutism. 

Children with eating and drinking difficulties

Children with social communication difficulties, e.g. children with autism.

Teenagers with speech and language difficulties (these children can often have behavioural difficulties).

Young offenders, e.g. identifying any communication difficulties and supporting them through the justice service (i.e. so they know how to meet the terms of their parole).

Children with learning disabilities, epilepsy, autism, cerebral palsy etc. may have a mix of speech, language and swallowing difficulties.

Adults

People who have had a stroke.

People with an acquired brain injury, e.g. brain injury secondary to a fall, accident or a spontaneous bleed.

People with brain tumours or metastases. 

People with voice difficulties; e.g. certain professions such as teachers and call centre workers use their voice a lot for work and may lose their voice. 

People who stammer.

People with head and neck cancer.

People with learning difficulties.

People with a progressive neurological conditions, including Parkinson’s disease (PD), Motor Neuron Disease (MND), Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Huntington’s disease (HD), Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) etc.

People with dementia.

People with mental health difficulties, e.g. medication can have negative side-effects on people’s swallowing or they may have behavioural difficulties impacting their eating and drinking.

People who have a tracheostomy (that is, an artificial opening in the neck which people use to breathe).

People in a Prolonged Disorder of Consciousness (PDOC) state.

People who have Locked-In Syndrome.

People who are temporarily unwell and, consequently, have a temporary swallowing disorder.

End of life patients who need advice regarding the most comfortable consistencies (for eating and drinking). 

If you want more information about the role of speech and language therapist please visit the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) website https://www.rcslt.org/.

How do you become a speech and language therapist?

You must complete an approved undergraduate or postgraduate speech and language therapy course. Undergraduate degrees take three to four years; postgraduate degrees take two years.

SLTs must be registered with the Healthcare Professional Council (HCPC) and the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT).

How much do speech and language therapists earn?

A newly qualified speech and language therapist will receive a Band 5 wage in the NHS. In 2019/2020, this is £24,214. In 2020/2021 this will rise to £24,907.

A band 6 specialist speech and language therapist role begins at  £30,401 (as of 2019/2020). A band 7 highly specialist speech and language therapist role begins at £37,570 (as of 2019/2020). In some NHS Trusts there are band 8a speech and language therapists, yet this is becoming increasingly rare.

Leave a comment if you want to know anything else about speech and language therapy and Book the Best Speech Therapist for Adults.

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What does speech and language therapy involve?

Speech and language therapy involves:

• Assessing your communication and/or swallowing abilities
• Discussing your goals 
• Providing supportive strategies
• Discussing therapy options 
• Providing therapy 
• Reviewing your progress in therapy
• Adjusting therapy programmes accordingly
• Informing other healthcare professionals about your input (e.g. your GP) 
• Assessment
• Communication Assessment

Communication assessment involves looking at your strengths and difficulties in a range of areas. This may include listening, speaking, reading, and writing. It also involves having a discussion with you and others (e.g. your family) about what you want to achieve. 

There are many different types of communication assessment. You will probably start with an informal assessment, such as having a chat. From there, tasks will be completed to gain an understanding of all of your different communication abilities. For example, your understanding of single words, simple sentences, more complex sentences, whole paragraphs of information. If you are being seen about your voice or speech, you may be asked to read a passage aloud. 

Assessment can also involve trialling different supportive strategies and different therapy approaches to see what you respond well to. This can help inform what therapy approaches may be more suitable for you. 

Assessment will involve asking you and others (e.g your family or close friends) what has changed, what you find helps and what does not help. Your feelings about your communication will also be discussed. For example, some people do not mind if they experience word finding difficulties or if their speech is less clear; other people find this incredibly upsetting. 

Swallowing assessment

A swallowing assessment involves discussing what and how you have been eating and drinking. Your speech and language therapist will want to know what you find easier and more difficult.

An oromotor assessment will then be completed. This looks at all of the nerves/muscles involved in swallowing. It involves different tasks with your face, mouth, tongue and voice. For example, your tongue's range of motion, coordination and strength will be looked at. This gives information as to what may be impacting your swallowing, e.g. a weak tongue. 

You will then eat and drink with your speech and language therapist observing and potentially feeling your hyolaryngeal excursion (the movement of your 'Adam's apple') and listening to your breathing with a stethoscope (cervical auscultation). If, for example, an individual has cognitive impairment and would be distressed by having their throat felt or the speech and language therapist being close enough to auscultate, then these methods may not be used. 

You will try drinks and foods of different consistencies as appropriate. You may also trial using different equipment. This may be trying using different types of cups, straws etc. You may also trial a swallowing strategy (e.g. swallowing twice per sip of drink). 

Goal Setting

Every person's goals are different. Therapy should be tailored to what is important to you. 

In order to meet a larger goal, it may be appropriate to set smaller goals to reach this. 

For example, if you have aphasia (language disorder) following a stroke and want to get back to work then this may require many smaller goals such as being able to read emails, being able to write emails, understanding complex instructions you are given and being able to communicate clearly. Within each of these areas, smaller goals may be set, e.g. to write an email you will need to be able to spell individual words and put them together into a sentence. 

If you have dysphagia (swallowing disorder) and you are currently on a pureed diet (smooth foods requiring no chewing) and your ultimate goal may be to eat (battered) fish and chips again then you will need to take smaller steps to get here. Your first goal will be working towards having foods that require a little chewing (minced and moist diet).

Supportive Strategies

During the assessment session, some supportive strategies may be recommended. 

Supportive strategies are things that you or others can do to support you with your communication and/ or swallowing. Strategies will be discussed, trialled and practised with you. 

Communication Examples

• Your conversation partner writing down keywords during conversation with you. 
• Speaking slowly and focusing on over-pronouncing words. 
• Using gesture to support your expression.  

Simple strategies such as reducing background noise (e.g. turning off the TV or radio) so that it is easier to hear you.  

Swallowing Examples

Discussing how your favourite meals can be adapted to your current swallowing recommendations, so that you are able to swallow them safely. For example, having flaked fish in a sauce with mashed potato rather than battered fish and chips. 

• Using a different type of cup
• Using a specialist piece of equipment, e.g. a straw with a one way valve 
• Having breaks between your courses to limit your fatigue to aid your swallowing 

Next Steps

The next steps will then be agreed between you and your speech and language therapist. The therapy options available will be discussed. This should involve discussing the evidence base of the therapies and what is involved. 

With private therapy, you get to decide how much input you want. Would you rather have a programme to practise yourself everyday and have a review session with your speech and language therapy every few weeks? Or would you rather have weekly therapy sessions so that your therapy programme can be adjusted more frequently as you progress? Some people decide to have therapy more often than this (e.g. multiple sessions per week). It depends on what you think will help you. Your speech and language therapist can discuss the different options available to you.  

Reviews

Your progress will be reviewed. The time frame for this will vary depending upon factors such as the skill being targeted, the intensity of the therapy and the severity of the difficulty. If you improve faster than expected or you do not 'get on' with the therapy programme, you can always request an earlier review than originally agreed. 

Informing others

It is best that a letter is written to your GP informing them of:

Your strengths and difficulties - this is so they are aware and can then make any changes they need to do also support you. For example, if you need longer to understand information or to express yourself, you could have longer-than-normal GP appointments. 

Any recommendations - for example, if you are recommended to have thickened fluids then you GP will have to be aware that they can prescribe a thickener. It is also useful to have this on your records in case you are admitted to hospital. 

Any therapy input - this is so they can contact your speech and language therapist if they have any questions.

It may also be recommended that this letter is sent to other professionals too, such as your Stroke Consultant or Parkinson's Disease Consultant, your specialist nurse or your other therapists. 

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Do you have any questions about what speech and language therapy will involve? 

Further articles will discuss different therapy approaches and resources. Speech Therapist for Adults

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Speech and language therapy (what is it, who has it, how do you become one & what is the salary?)

Speech and language therapy refers to the assessment and therapeutic input provided by speech and language therapists for people with communication and/or swallowing difficulties. People of all ages can experience communication and swallowing difficulties. Speech and language therapists need to complete an approved undergraduate or postgraduate degree in speech and language therapy and be registered with the appropriate bodies in their country.

What is speech and language therapy?

Speech and language therapy refers to the assessment, support and treatment or therapy for children and adults with difficulties with their communication and swallowing. Communication difficulties include voice, speech, language and social communication difficulties.

People can receive speech and language therapy across a variety of settings, such as at school, home, hospital or in a clinic. The length and type of speech and language therapy input varies according to many factors such as the cause of the difficulty, the prognosis of recovery, the engagement/motivation of the individual and the individuals’ cognitive ability (as this can affect their ability to engage with certain therapy activities).

Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs) work with the individual with the communication and/or swallowing difficulty, their family, carers and other professionals such as doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, psychologists, teachers and SENCOs. SLTs are Allied Health Professionals (AHP); AHPs make up the third biggest workforce in the NHS after doctors and nurses.

Who do speech and language therapists work with?

Speech and language therapists work with people of all ages who have communication and swallowing difficulties; from newborns through to individuals who are in the end stage of their life.

Typically, speech and language therapists either work with children or adults and there are many different specialisms within these age groups. Some therapists may work across all age groups in a particular specialism, e.g. dysfluency (stammering).

The following is a list of different groups of people who speech and language therapists work with:

Children

• New-born babies (who are having difficulty taking milk)
• Children with speech difficulties, e.g. unable to make specific sounds such as ‘s’ or motor speech disorder secondary to a condition such as cerebral palsy.
• Children with a language delay
• Children with a language disorder, e.g. developmental language disorder (DLD).
• Children with selective mutism.
• Children with eating and drinking difficulties
• Children with social communication difficulties, e.g. children with autism.
• Teenagers with speech and language difficulties (these children can often have behavioural difficulties).
• Young offenders, e.g. identifying any communication difficulties and supporting them through the justice service (i.e. so they know how to meet the terms of their parole).
• Children with learning disabilities, epilepsy, autism, cerebral palsy etc. may have a mix of speech, language and swallowing difficulties.

Adults

• People who have had a stroke.
• People with an acquired brain injury, e.g. brain injury secondary to a fall, accident or a spontaneous bleed.
• People with brain tumours or metastases.
• People with voice difficulties; e.g. certain professions such as teachers and call centre workers use their voice a lot for work and may lose their voice.
• People who stammer.
• People with head and neck cancer.
• People with learning difficulties.
• People with a progressive neurological conditions, including Parkinson’s disease (PD), Motor Neuron Disease (MND), Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Huntington’s disease (HD), Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) etc.
• People with dementia.
• People with mental health difficulties, e.g. medication can have negative side-effects on people’s swallowing or they may have behavioural difficulties impacting their eating and drinking.
• People who have a tracheostomy (that is, an artificial opening in the neck which people use to breathe).
• People in a Prolonged Disorder of Consciousness (PDOC) state.
• People who have Locked-In Syndrome.
• People who are temporarily unwell and, consequently, have a temporary swallowing disorder.
• End of life patients who need advice regarding the most comfortable consistencies (for eating and drinking).

If you want more information about the role of speech and language therapist please visit the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) website https://www.rcslt.org/.

How do you become a speech and language therapist?

You must complete an approved undergraduate or postgraduate speech and language therapy course. Undergraduate degrees take three to four years; postgraduate degrees take two years.

SLTs must be registered with the Healthcare Professional Council (HCPC) and the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT).

How much do speech and language therapists earn?

A newly qualified speech and language therapist will receive a Band 5 wage in the NHS. In 2019/2020, this is £24,214. In 2020/2021 this will rise to £24,907.

A band 6 specialist speech and language therapist role begins at £30,401 (as of 2019/2020). A band 7 highly specialist speech and language therapist role begins at £37,570 (as of 2019/2020). In some NHS Trusts there are band 8a speech and language therapists, yet this is becoming increasingly rare.

Leave a comment if you want to know anything else about speech and language therapy.

Original Content Taken from this site : https://www.speechtherapylincs.com/post/speech-and-language-therapy-what-is-it-who-has-it-how-do-you-become-one-what-is-the-salary