SPEECH THERAPY
BABC offers Speech and Language therapy, consultation and evaluation and focuses on diagnosing and treating the unique needs of individuals with communication and language disorders and deficits. Our speech therapy program begins with an evaluation by a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) to assess the communication strengths and challenges, treatment goals and interventions.
Our Speech and Language Evaluations Address:
Receptive Language Problems: Trouble understanding (receiving) language.
Expressive Language Problems: Trouble speaking (expressing) language.
Pragmatic Language Problems: Trouble using language in socially appropriate ways.
Articulation Problems: Not speaking clearly and making errors in sounds.
Fluency Problems: Trouble with the flow of speech, such as stuttering.
Resonance or Voice Problems: Trouble with voice pitch, volume and quality.
Oral Feeding Problems: Difficulty with eating, swallowing and drooling.
Examples of the Skills That Speech Therapy May Work on Include:
Strengthening the muscles in the mouth, jaw and neck
Making clearer speech sounds
Matching emotions with the correct facial expressions
Understanding body language
Responding to questions
Matching a picture with its meaning
Using a speech app on an iPad to produce the correct word
Modulating tone of voice
Speech disorders occur when there is difficulty producing speech sounds correctly or fluently (e.g., stuttering is a form of disfluency)
Articulation Disorders: Difficulty producing speech sounds, which can be caused by motor or structural problems
Phonological Disorders: Impairment of the system of phonemes and phoneme patterns in spoken language
Disfluency: Disorders that affect the fluency of speech, such as stuttering
Voice Disorders: Disorders that affect the quality of a person's voice
Resonance Disorders: Disorders that affect the quality of a person's voice
Language disorders occur when a person has trouble understanding others (receptive language), or sharing thoughts, ideas, and feelings (expressive language). Language disorders may be spoken or written and may involve the form (phonology, morphology, syntax), content (semantics), and/or use (pragmatics) of language in functional and socially appropriate ways.
Social communication disorders occur when there is trouble with the social use of verbal and nonverbal communication. These disorders may include problems communicating for social purposes (e.g., greeting, commenting, asking questions), (b) talking in different ways to suit the listener and setting, and (c) following rules for conversation and story-telling.
Cognitive-communication disorders include problems organizing thoughts, paying attention, remembering, planning, and/or problem-solving. These disorders usually happen as a result of a stroke, traumatic brain injury, or dementia, although they can be congenital.
Swallowing disorders (dysphagia) are feeding and swallowing difficulties, which may follow an illness, surgery, stroke, or injury.
