Speech and Language Therapy
At the Island Rehabilitation Practice our specialist speech and language therapist can provide therapy for both communication and swallowing (dysphagia) for adults with an acquired neurological conditions including:
- Brain injury
- Stroke
- Locked-in syndrome
- Dementia
- Parkinson’s disease (including LSVT)
- Huntingtons disease
- Motor neurone disease
- Multiple sclerosis
- Guillain-Barre syndrome
Stephanie also works with voice impairments. These may be caused by nodules, vocal cord paralysis, brain injury or ENT surgery.
So what specifically can speech and language therapy treat?
- Communication difficulties:
- Aphasia: a language impairment causing difficulties speaking, understanding, reading, writing and / or gesture.
- Dysarthria: muscle weakness of the face, mouth or throat which can cause speech to sound slurred.
- Apraxia of speech: a speech impairment affecting ability to plan speech movements.
- Cognitive-communication disorder: this includes difficulties with attention, memory, planning and social interaction.
- Dysphonia: changes to voice quality. This can include having a hoarse, strained, or quiet voice.
Swallowing – Neurological changes can also cause difficulties swallowing:
Swallowing difficulties:
- Dysphagia: this means swallowing impairment which can impact on abilities to swallow saliva, food and drink. Symptoms include drooling, difficulties chewing and coughing / choking on food and drink.
- Our specialist speech and language therapist can assess, diagnose and advise on diet modification and swallowing exercises as appropriate.