Adults may need speech therapy home care services after a stroke, illness, or traumatic accident that changes their ability to use language. Speech therapy focuses on receptive language, or the ability to understand the words spoken to you, and expressive language, or the ability to use words to express yourself. It also deals with the mechanics of producing words, such as articulation, pitch, fluency, and volume.
The goal of speech therapy is to improve or eliminate symptoms that impede speech such as:
- Chewing and swallowing difficulties
- Oral-motor functioning
- Speech sound production
- Breath support for speech
- Vocal quality and loudness
- Cognition for communication (examples: memory, sequencing, problem-solving,
- Verbal reasoning, (safety-awareness)
- Accent reduction
- Disfluency (stuttering)
- Pragmatics (social skills displayed in communication)
Specific speech therapy services include:
- Assessment of communication and
swallowing disorders - Voice quality enhancement
- Breathing and voice exercises
- Cognition training for memory, attention, and
problem-solving including organization, memory, and
word retrieval
Benefits of Speech Therapy Home Care Services
- One-on-one personal attention
- Family guidance and education to support effective communication at home
- Eliminates transportation stressors
- Less chance of exposure to viruses and illness
- Coordinated speech therapy with other therapeutic home care services such as physical and occupational therapy on an as-needed basis
In the comfortable surroundings of his own home, my aphasic husband has emerged from silence and is flourishing under the guidance of his able speech therapist.”
~ Marty J.
Speech Therapy FAQs
