Swallowing is amazingly complex. People swallow an average of 300 times per day. At least 50 pairs of muscles and a network of nerves work together to get liquids and solids from the mouth to the stomach.
Swallowing Is Complex
During the first stage of swallowing, the tongue does most of the work, chewing and moving food around. In the second stage, the tongue pushes food to the back of the throat where a reflexive action occurs to trigger swallowing. The larynx and lungs will close off to allow food and liquid to pass. If both are not closed off properly, coughing, gagging, or choking can occur. In the last stage, food or liquid is carried to the stomach through the esophagus by a process called peristalsis.
Where Does Dysphagia (difficulty swallowing) Come In?
Swallowing problems, also called dysphagia, can occur any time during the swallowing process. Difficulty chewing or moving food to the back of the throat may occur from weak muscles in the tongue or mouth. Weak throat muscles may not be able to move food or liquid down the esophagus.
Most commonly, dysphagia occurs when the swallowing reflex has been disrupted. This can occur due to stroke, neuromuscular diseases like cerebral palsy or Parkinson's disease, head trauma, even an infection or irritation. These can disrupt the swallowing reflex, the coordination of the throat muscle's, or the ability to feel sensations in the throat or mouth, as in numbness or paralysis.
Getting Help With Dysphagia
A person's ability to swallow will be evaluated by the speech-language pathologist. Some tests include using a lighted tube to see down the throat or videotaping a person while swallowing.
Treatment by a speech pathologist or therapist may include strengthening the muscles involved in swallowing or implementing exercises that improve coordination. In some cases, patients can be taught new ways to swallow, like holding the head a certain way or using a thickener in thin liquids.
Don’t Do It Alone
Therapy can be a frustrating process of relearning simple tasks. Karen Barta will offer encouragement and gentle guidance throughout the patient's treatment.
I can help - I am a Speech Therapist providing In-Home Speech Therapy services throughout the Denver, Colorado area. Just give me a call at 303-949-0351 or send me an email.
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Stuttering can impact a person's entire life. From an embarrassing inability to communicate effectively to the emotional pain of rejection or ridicule, a person with a speech impediment may suffer for years before turning to a professional speech therapist for help with a stuttering problem.
Selecting The Right Therapist
Sometimes a patient might not find help with a particular therapist. It is important to find the right therapist to help with stuttering. Each individual is different and just because a therapist helped one person might not mean the therapist is equipped to help everyone. Several questions should be posed to the therapist before beginning a course of treatment. Some questions may include:
- Is the therapist comfortable treating stuttering? Not all therapists are comfortable or want to treat stuttering.
- How many patients has the therapist treated for stuttering?
- What is the therapist's goal in treating stuttering? Does it line up with the goals of the patient?
- What methods and modes of treatment does the therapist use? How often does the therapist suggest treatment be done? Does the therapist suggest a short course of intensive treatment or a more long-term approach and does this work for the patient?
Determine The Cost
Find out what costs are involved. After the initial evaluation, which can run from $300 to $500 (mine are much lower -- see my fee schedule here), ask what the fees for treatment are. Some insurance companies will cover speech therapy after a stroke but not if the speech disorder is chronic, as in stuttering. Check with your insurance company to find out if they cover the treatment and make sure the therapist is in the insurance company's network.
Get Clear On The Expectations
Lastly, find out what kind of success can be expected. If stuttering has been a lifelong problem, it is doubtful a speech therapist can completely cure the problem. However, most therapists can help people with a stuttering handicap alleviate the severity of the symptoms and enable them to make strides towards more graceful and effective communication.
I can help - I am a Speech Therapist providing In-Home Speech Therapy services throughout the Denver, Colorado area. Just give me a call at 303-949-0351 or send me an email.
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Dysphagia, or difficulties swallowing, can be a serious disorder. People with dysphagia may be unable to swallow various consistencies of food or liquids, while others are unable to swallow at all. People with dysphagia may have a problem consuming enough calories and may lose dangerous amounts of weight. Therefore, dysphagia should be addressed as soon as possible to prevent malnutrition or other serious threats to a person's health.
What Causes Dysphagia?
There are a number of causes of dysphagia. The most common cause is stroke or other head injury, but dysphagia can occur with some illnesses, such as Parkinson's or cerebral palsy. Some cancer treatments may affect the ability to swallow as well.
Is Treatment Available?
Treatment for swallowing disorders depends on the underlying cause. A doctor will use several methods of testing to uncover the cause and may be able to treat dysphagia with medication or surgery. If those methods don't alleviate the problem, the doctor may recommend the patient see a speech-language pathologist, even if speech is not impaired. The speech therapist will administer further testing to develop a treatment plan based on the patient's specific impairment.
A speech therapist will look for weak muscles in the mouth, throat, or tongue and address any coordination issues that appear to affect the swallowing mechanism. The therapist may use exercises to strengthen the swallowing muscles or teach the patient new ways to swallow.
Why Not Just Leave It Alone?
Serious issues can arise if dysphagia is not treated promptly. Apart from the inability to maintain a healthy weight, patients with dysphagia may also get food or liquid trapped in the pharynx, or windpipe, where bacteria can grow and cause pneumonia. Other times, the weakened esophagus may develop a pocket that traps food and prohibits the passage of other food or liquid. The trapped food may then slip into the pharynx during sleep and cause infection.
Most cases of dysphagia can be treated and improved when addressed quickly.
I can help - I am a Speech Therapist providing In-Home Speech Therapy services throughout the Denver, Colorado area. Just give me a call at 303-949-0351 or send me an email.
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Elmer Fudd may get a laugh every time he hunts for that "wascally wabbit", Bugs Bunny, but speech-language disorders are not laughing matters. It can be painful to not be understood or to be ridiculed for voice problems. It is estimated that 5% of school-age children have some type of language disorder. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association breaks disorders into two types, speech disorders and language disorders.
Understanding Speech Disorders
Speech disorders include problems with articulation, slurred speech, stuttering and problems with pitch, volume, or vocal quality.
Understanding Language Disorders
Language disorders are categorized as receptive or expressive. A receptive disorder occurs when there are problems understanding language, while expressive disorders make it difficult to put words together, develop vocabulary, use language appropriately. People with an expressive disorder have trouble saying what they want to say.
There Is Help Available
Speech and language disorders may require treatment by a professional speech-language therapist. These therapists are trained to identify communication problems by using specialized testing methods.
What a Therapist May Do
Often the therapist will work with the individual on a one-to-one basis, using techniques that have been proven to improve the person's speech, language, voice and cognitive abilities. Some of the treatments a therapist may use are teaching correct pronunciation through modeling, repetition, and exercise. It's best to start treatment early and continue until the therapist and patient feel that maximum results have been achieved.
Who Can Be Helped?
There are a number of reasons for speech and language problems. Some of them include birth defects, like cleft palate, autism, hearing impairments, developmental delays, weak oral muscles, or traumatic brain injuries. Speech therapy can address all these issues.
I can help - I am a Speech Therapist providing In-Home Speech Therapy services throughout the Denver, Colorado area. Just give me a call at 303-949-0351 or send me an email.
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Stroke survivors face a number of challenges when trying to integrate back into everyday life. One of the biggest challenges is language impairment, called aphasia. More than 20% of stroke victims suffer from some form of aphasia, whether it's the inability to form words, a difficulty understanding the spoken word, problems with reading and writing or a combination of any of the four areas.
There are three main types of aphasia. The first, and most common, type is called Broca's aphasia. This type of aphasia affects a person's ability to find and articulate words clearly. The person may have a complete understanding of speech but often becomes frustrated when trying to get their words out. Broca's aphasia is often accompanied by muscle weakness or paralysis on one side of the body, usually the right side.
Wernicke's aphasia affects the language comprehension area of the brain. People with this type of speech impairment have trouble understanding the spoken word. Their speech is often fluent but makes no sense to others. Word finding problems, reading and writing problems also plague these individuals. People with Wernicke's aphasia are normally unaware of their speech errors but will try to self correct themselves at times.
The third type of aphasia is called global aphasia. This aphasia is characterized by difficulties in the production and understanding of language. Individuals may use automatic words and phrases used in the past, though these utterances are rarely used in an appropriate context.
Speech therapy can greatly benefit most individuals afflicted by aphasia. Increasing levels of difficulty are introduced gradually during the course of therapy to allow individuals to attain their highest level of skill. The prognosis is usually quite good when therapy is started early and given priority.
I can help - I am a Speech Therapist providing In-Home Speech Therapy services throughout the Denver, Colorado area. Just give me a call at 303-949-0351 or send me an email.
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