Benefits Of Speech Therapy For Both Adults And Children
Is your child experiencing delays in learning speech and language? Do you experience language-based difficulties (such as stuttering) or other issues such as problems swallowing?
Well, you're not alone — it is estimated that 5 to 10 percent of any country's population experience speech-related problems, and the same applies to Malaysia!
That means about 2 million Malaysians need speech therapists. Yet the awareness of speech therapy is worryingly low in Malaysia!
So, what is speech therapy? How can it help both adults and children?
In this article, we'll explore the role of speech therapy in helping both children and adults overcome challenges in either speech, language skills or physiological problems such as difficulty swallowing.
How Does Speech Therapy Work?
Speech therapy involves working with speech therapists or pathologists.
They are health professionals who help people with a range of speech and vocal cord-related difficulties, including issues with voice, using and understanding language, fluency, reading, writing, eating and drinking.
In fact, both children and adults may experience communication difficulties.
This often leads to mental health issues and developing behavioural problems, causing poor self-esteem, struggling to maintain social relationships and sustaining full-time employment.
Speech-language pathologists will usually follow a treatment pathway as below:New Paragraph:
- Assessment of the case history, including medical status, education, socioeconomic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds as well as securing information from teachers and other related service providers
- Patient/client/student and family interview
- Review of auditory, visual, motor, and cognitive status
- Measuring specific aspects of speech, spoken and non-spoken language, cognitive-communication, and swallowing function
- Identification of potential for effective intervention strategies and compensations
- Conducting follow-up services in order to monitor communication and swallowing status
- Ensuring the appropriate intervention and support for individuals with identified speech, language, cognitive-communication, and/or swallowing disorders are taken
Who Can Benefit From Speech Therapy?
Speech therapy has been recognised to benefit numerous conditions regardless of age or gender.
Here is a list of conditions that can greatly benefit from speech therapy:
- Newborns who are born with a cleft palate
- Pre-schoolers who are slow to talk
- Children who have difficulty with speech and written expressions, or with understanding what is said to them (developmental language disorder)
- Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
- People with hearing loss
- People who stutter
- Professional voice users (teachers, singers)
- People with acquired brain injuries
- People who have had a stroke
- People who have difficulty drinking and eating without choking
- People with an intellectual disability such as down syndrome
- People who need an augmentative or alternative communication (AAC) device to speak or communicate more easily.
What Are The Benefits Of Speech Therapy?New Paragraph
Greatly-improved socialisation skills
While therapy helps children develop skills such as matching emotions to faces and conversation, it also helps with understanding nonverbal body language.
Think of it as learning different ways to communicate with different people in a variety of settings.
This helps a child (or even an adult) build stronger connections and more fulfilling, lasting relationships.
Enhance a person's ability to communicate
Speech therapy can help both children and adults to communicate their needs and wants.
By developing a child at any stage of educational development or an adult's ability to communicate, speech therapy can open up plenty of opportunities in life!
Improve a person's cognitive development
As the human brain is tied together when it comes to speech, voice, thinking and reasoning activities, improved speech skills often translate to improved cognitive development.
That's aided by the fact that speech pathologists also teach reasoning and problem solving skills to improve comprehension and thought.
Develop much improved reading and writing abilities
Speech therapists can also address a person's literacy (aka reading, writing, and spelling).
While it might often be thought to be the responsibility of a school teacher, a speech therapist is trained to identify the challenges faced and to approach instruction with systematic, evidence-based methodologies.
Gradually improve or resolve food consumption issues
Speech therapy can address swallowing difficulties that plague both children and adults.
In fact, some children have problems eating because the muscles in their mouths are unable to do what they need to do to hold, chew, and swallow food.
Speech therapists can identify where the breakdown is taking place to strengthen those muscles and improve coordination.
Improved oral speech patterns
Speech therapy can help those who rely on their voice as a career or correct a person's tone of voice!
That's because there are voices out there that may sound flat or robotic, lacking intonation or emotion.
Using a wrong tone of voice or speech pattern can cause misunderstandings, but your speech pathologist can help!
Choose Well Rehab as your preferred centre for speech therapy in Malaysia
Difficulties with voice, speech and language can seriously affect the quality of everyday life in both adults and children.
At Well Rehab, we can help you address these issues with professional treatments.
As Malaysia's leading provider of speech therapy and physiotherapy services, we are the preferred, qualified and certified professionals that are trusted nationwide.
For more information about our therapies or services in Malaysia, you may contact us at +60 12 512 8487 or email wellrehabmanagement@gmail.com
