What Is Speech Therapy?

You’ve probably heard of speech therapy, and may have gone to school with kids who “went to speech.” Your own kids may have had speech therapy at school, or you may have had some assistance with your own speech. Still, you may not have a clear picture of what a speech therapist does.

Speech therapy is a field of therapy that helps people overcome communications problems relating to their mouths, throats or voice in general. While speech therapists often work with children who were born with speech impediments, speech therapy is also helpful for adults who’ve suffered injuries or experienced a loss of communication ability due to illness.

Speech therapy deals with all of the issues surrounding language and verbal communication, and can bring a person who previously could not communicate back into the world—or into the world for the first time.

A typical child in speech therapy would be a kindergarten student who does not form sounds correctly. While this may seem like something the child will grow out of, it might be more serious than that. If the child is not hearing and forming sounds correctly, she can’t simply grow out of that difficulty, and might even have trouble when she starts reading because the sounds don’t make sense to her. A good speech therapist can help her understand, hear and create the sounds, and speak clearly.

Speech pathologists have a variety of titles and positions. Most schools have a speech therapists with a certification to work in elementary or middle school. These therapists focus completely on working with children who have had speech problems from birth; their techniques are very specialized for these children.
Hospitals and rehabilitation centers employ occupational therapists and speech therapists to work with adults, teens and children who’ve suffered accidents affecting their speech. These therapists have a very different focus than the therapists who work in schools.

Other therapists work in clinics or in independent practices, and may work with patients born with speaking difficulties, with children who are not progressing as well as hoped, and with accident victims on an outpatient basis.

Speech therapy forms a much larger part of the medical and vocational picture in our society than we realize, simply because most of us are fortunate to not have to work with a speech therapist. Even when our children have minor speech problems, we can usually work with them on our own, without calling in a speech therapist.

The good news is that speech therapists are available when needed, and these professionals can have a huge impact on an individual’s life. The ability to communicate is central to our ability to interact with other people.
Needing help in learning to communicate, or regaining the ability to communicate, is not something anyone should be ashamed of. Many people have similar problems, and speech therapy can help with communication difficulties. By allowing someone to help us learn to communicate our thoughts, we are able to contribute more fully to the world and to our own lives.