Speech therapy involves the management and treatment of various conditions affecting a person’s ability to speak, communicate and swallow. Speech therapists work with individuals who may have weakened vocal chords, difficulty retrieving the words to speak, speech impediments or trouble swallowing. Therapy may involve teaching the patient how to eat different consistencies of food (for swallowing difficulties) or showing a patient postures to improve their condition.
Speech therapy at Cortland Regional Medical Center is a rehabilitation treatment designed to aid in the correction of speech or language disorders for both hospital patients, and members of the community that utilize our services on an outpatient basis. Our therapists provide services throughout county to hospital patients directly, on-site at nursing homes, through visiting nurses programs, and by treating outpatients referred to our facilities by a primary care physician.
Some of the conditions we often treat in this department are:
- Dysphasia: difficulty swallowing, for more information about swallowing difficulties, take a look at the q + a at www.asha.org/public/speech/swallowing/swallowingadults.htm
- Aphasia: difficulty understanding or producing language. For more information on aphasia, visit www.aphasia.org
- Dysarthria, difficulty making clear speech
- cognitive-linguistic deficits, attention, memory, reasoning, safety awareness
- dysfluency (stuttering)
- developmental speech and language disorders in early childhood development
- voice dysphonia: when your voice is not working properly
The speech therapy professionals at Cortland Regional work in conjunction with other therapists in the rehabilitation department and with your own physician to ensure the best care possible.
Often the first step upon being referred to us is a thorough evaluation of the issues at hand. Commonly performed evaluations include clinical swallowing evaluations, video fluoroscopic testing, as well as speech, language and cognitive evaluations.
Our therapists utilize a variety of techniques to best suit the individual’s needs. Direct treatment like practice with speech sounds, finding words, solving problems or trying different food consistencies may work best. But often we also utilize indirect techniques in the case of language, alternative and augmentative means of communication, and to help find and understand words.
Here’s a closer look at some of the conditions we treat and the treatments we utilize for speech issues:
- Speech Enhancement or Fluency
- Speech Recovery after Stroke: Stroke can cause physical problems and affect cognition. Every stroke is unique and the effect the stroke has on your thinking abilities depends on each individual. For further information, please visit: www.stroke.org
- Video Fluoroscopy Swallow Evaluations: The video fluoroscopy swallowing evaluation is designed to study the anatomy of the stages of swallowing. For more information about this on the web, take a look at the q +a at www.brighamandwomens.org/otolaryngology/speechandswallowingservice_videofluroscopic.aspx
- Pediatric Speech Therapy: Let the specialists at CRMC help to diagnose and treat your child’s speech issues. A speech disorder refers to a problem with your actual production of sounds. A language disorder refers to the difficulty of understanding and putting words together. It is important for your child to begin therapy as soon as possible to help correct their speech and language disorders. For further information, please visit: www.kidshealth.com
