Speech Therapy for Adults
Are you dealing with a speech impediment you feel is holding you back in life?
Do you have a stutter, a thick accent, or other impairment that makes communicating more difficult?
Have you imagined how your life might be different if only you could get your ideas out clearly?
If so, speech therapy for adults might be just the solution you need.
Speech language therapy can help you improve your communication. Here at District Speech, we provide speech therapy for adults hoping to resolve their speech concerns and improve their quality of life.
Read on to find out how our adult speech therapy services can help you.
What Sort Of Problems Does Speech Therapy Help With?
There are a number of different speech disorders adults may face.
Accent Modification
For those who were born in a different region, your accent may make it difficult for the people around you to understand you. This can affect your self esteem, make it more difficult to connect with people in your new home, and hold you back from pursuing new opportunities in your personal and professional life.
Even worse, some may view you as less intelligent as a result of your difficulty expressing your ideas.
An accent is not a speech impediment. There’s nothing wrong with having an accent. But if your accent is causing you problems, District Speech can help.
We’ll work with you to deconstruct your current speech patterns, compare them with a native English speaker here in Washington, and help you alter your speech patterns to become more easily understood.
Articulation Disorders
If you have an articulation disorder, you’re unable to form the sounds of certain words properly.
There are a few different ways articulation errors can manifest – substitution, omission, distortion, or addition errors.
A substitution error is when you substitute one sound for another. Think of Elmer Fudd here – wabbit instead of rabbit.
An omission error is when you end up skipping certain sounds in a word. For example, if you were talking about the meal you had last night, you might mention the bown rice you had in it.
A distortion error is when you pronounce something in an unusual way. Lisps fall under this category.
An addition error is when you add extra sounds to the words you pronounce.
There are a number of others, including malapropisms, metatheses, morphemes, and many more.
Whatever it is that’s causing your articulation issues, District Speech can help. Contact us today to find out how.
Fluency Disorders
In this case, fluency has less to do with how well you know English, and more with the rhythm, flow, speed, and general pattern of your speech.
If you have a stutter, for example, your speech may be full of interruptions, blocks, or repetitions. Meanwhile, if you clutter your speech, your words may end up merging together, equally as difficult to understand.
Either way, here at District Speech, we can work with you to control these speech habits.
Aphasia
If you’re struggling with aphasia, you struggle to speak as well as to understand others. It may also affect your ability to read and write.
The most common causes of aphasia are illnesses or trauma to the brain. This includes stroke, brain cancer, traumatic brain injury, or other types of brain infection.
Each case of aphasia is different. In some cases, it only affects certain aspects of speech, while in others communication becomes nearly impossible.
For those with aphasia, full recovery is generally not possible. However, here at District Speech, we can help you make significant improvements in your ability to understand and communicate.
Dysarthria
With many speech disorders, the source of the difficulty is not a physical issue, but a mental one. Dysarthria, however, is an exception.
If you’ve been afflicted with dysarthria, your speech difficulties are linked to a weakness or lack of motor control over the muscles in your face. Sometimes this can come about from an injury, but it’s most closely linked with disorders like multiple sclerosis (MS), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson’s disease, or facial paralysis.
Treatment for dysarthria will involve your speech therapist from District Speech, as well as your family doctor. Your family doctor will work to treat the cause of your dysarthria from a physiological perspective when possible, and your speech therapist will help you continue to communicate.
Other Types Of Adult Speech Disorders
The above speech disorders are some of the more common ones. However, there are a number of other issues you may face, including:
- Cognitive disorders – these generally come about from a brain injury or stroke
- Expressive disorders – where you have difficulty forming sentences
- Resonance disorders – where a nasal or oral blockage affects your voice quality
- Receptive disorders – where you have trouble processing what others say
- Transgender speech issues – where your voice is incongruent with your gender identity
How Does Speech Therapy Work?
If it’s your first time doing speech therapy, you may not know where to start. Not to worry – we’ll take you by the hand and guide you through the process.
During your first appointment, you and your speech therapist will discuss the reason you decided to come into the clinic. From there, your therapist will ask questions about your current state of health, past events that may have contributed to your concerns, and specific goals related to your speech concerns.
From there, your speech therapist will provide you with some exercises you can do at home, as well as a treatment plan designed to address your concerns and work toward your goals.
Depending on your concerns and goals, your treatment plan may include:
- Breathing exercises, to improve vocal resonance
- Muscle exercises, to retrain and strengthen the muscles you use for speech
- Memory and organization exercises
- Language development games
- Follow-up appointments to work through issues
How Long Do You Need Speech Therapy?
You’re a unique individual with unique speech-related challenges. As a result, your experience with speech therapy will be different than anyone else’s.
There are a few different factors that can influence your progress though, including:
- Type of speech disorder
- Severity of speech disorder
- The presence of any underlying medical conditions
- How old you are
- The frequency of your visits
- Adherence to your treatment plan
Book An Appointment With District Speech
Are you dealing with one of the above afflictions, and getting tired of looking for solutions?
Do you get frustrated by your general speech patterns?
Have you felt like your speech concerns are holding you back from growing to your full potential as a human being?
If so, District Speech can help.
Contact us today to book an appointment with one of our licensed speech therapists. We’ll work with you to build a treatment plan that suits your lifestyle.
Speech concerns can be frustrating and heartbreaking to deal with, but it doesn’t have to be that way. There are solutions that can help.
Book your appointment with District Speech today, and start enjoying true freedom in your speech.