Stuttering/ stammering is struggling to speak fluently, an interruption in the flow of speech.

After a comprehensive evaluation by a speech-language pathologist, a decision about the best treatment approach can be made. Several different approaches are available to treat children and adults who stutter. Because of varying individual issues and needs, a method — or combination of methods — that’s helpful for one person may not be as effective for another.

Though relapses can occur in stuttering, but treatment of stuttering can teach skills that help to:

Learning disability and Speech Disorders

Learning disabilities are disorders that affect the ability to understand or use spoken or written language, do mathematical calculations, coordinate movements, or direct attention. Although learning disabilities occur in very young children, the disorders are usually not recognized until the child reaches school age.

Depending on the learning disorder, children with learning disabilities benefit from Speech therapy. Speech therapy can help children who have language disabilities.

Few examples are:

Hearing loss can affect a child’s ability to develop speech, language, and social skills. Early intervention ( Birth- 4 years) is recommended for children with hearing loss as early treatment can help children to reach their full potential. Further depending on the severity and cause of hearing loss in your child, hearing aids, cochlear implants and a combination of speech therapy or assistive listening devices might be recommended forms of treatment.

Hearing sounds and words stimulate the hearing part of the brain and help children learn to talk and understand.

A child with hearing loss misses out on these sounds. Thus auditory pathways aren’t stimulated due to which the hearing part of the brain won’t develop. This increases risk for later difficulties such as speaking, reading, school success, and social skills.

Therefore it is important to have your child tested if you think he has trouble hearing and speech therapy should be given after treatment of hearing for accelerating and acquiring age appropriate speech and language.

One of the most successful approaches for facilitating speech and listening for children with cochlear implants. The Auditory Verbal approach stimulates auditory brain development and enables deaf children with hearing aids and cochlear implants to make sense of the sound relayed by their devices. As a result, children with hearing loss are better able to develop listening and spoken language skills, with the aim of giving them the same opportunities and an equal start in life as hearing children.

Aphasia is a language disorder caused by damage in a specific area of the brain that controls language expression and comprehension. Aphasia unables the person to communicate effectively with others. Aphasia generally occurs after a stroke / brain injury or may gradually develop due to brain tumor. Both men and women are equally affected and most people with aphasia are in the middle to old age group.

For aphasia, speech and language therapy aims to improve the person’s ability to communicate by restoring as much language as possible, teaching how to make up for lost language skills and finding other methods of communicating. Therapy for aphasia Starts early. Some studies have found that therapy is most effective when it begins soon after the brain injury.

We use many muscles to talk. These include muscles in our face, lips, tongue, and throat, as well as muscles for breathing. It is harder to talk when these muscles are weak. Dysarthria happens when you have weak muscles due to brain damage. It is a motor speech disorder and can be mild or severe.

People with dysarthria speech benefit from speech therapy to improve communication. Speech-language pathologists can also work with your family and loved ones to help them learn how to communicate better with you.

Apraxia of Speech (AOS)—also known as acquired apraxia of speech, verbal apraxia, or childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) when diagnosed in children—is a speech sound disorder. Someone with AOS has trouble saying what he or she wants to say correctly and consistently.

AOS is a neurological disorder that affects the brain pathways involved in planning the sequence of movements involved in producing speech. The brain knows what it wants to say, but cannot properly plan and sequence the required speech sound movements.

Speech language therapy is the main treatment for Apraxia of Speech. Speech Language Pathologists often use various methods to treat it.