The Role of a Speech Pathologist

Speech pathologists have the most important role to help , diagnose and treat communication disorders. Their mission is to help children with difficulties with speaking, listening, understanding language, social skills and using voice. Also, they work with people who have difficulty communicating because of developmental delays, stroke, brain injuries, learning disability, intellectual disability, cerebral palsy, dementia and hearing loss, as well as other problems that can affect speech and language.

Speech pathologists are responsible to evaluate and treat anyone with speech and language obstructions. Also, they can evaluate and treat swallowing problems, impaired cognition and hearing problems.

They teach their patients how to be able to communicate with alternative methods, like using pictures or symbols, hand gestures, sign language ortalking computers to be able to communicate with others and express themselves. When a child is diagnosed early with speech difficulties the better their outcome will be with the help and support the pathology will be able to do.

There is a variety of strategies for the speech pathologist can use :

Language intervention activities: that can be one to one or in a group session while interacting with the children by playing, and talking using pictures, books, objects or ongoing events to stimulate language development.

Articulation therapy: it is a kind of sound production, exercises involve having the therapist model correct sounds and syllables for a child during playing or activity time.It depends on the age appropriation or the child’s specific needs.

Oral-motor/feeding and swallowing therapy: the pathology will use a variety of oral exercises; including facial massage and various tongue, lip, and jaw exercises — to strengthen the muscles of the mouth. I was impressed with the Baby and Toddler Milestones scale that they are using to identify the child delay in speech and language disorders.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZSjm0drIGM