Speech therapist

Language and the ability to communicate are essential characteristics of human beings. This makes it all the more difficult for those who suffer from disorders of their language and voice. These people are not only threatened in their professional and social existence, they are also exposed to the danger of being excluded from their social environment. Often only a visit to one can take these risks Speech therapists counteract, which tries to improve the communication skills of his patients through targeted treatments.

What is a speech therapist?

A Speech therapist treats people who suffer from speech, speech, swallowing or voice disorders. Its task is to improve these people's communication skills and to make it easier for them to integrate into their social environment.

To work as a speech therapist, you usually have to complete a three-year training course at vocational schools for speech therapy. Here, the budding speech therapist gets to know the numerous areas of speech therapy, including phonetics and linguistics. The prerequisites for being a speech therapist are a suitable voice, good hearing, musical talent and empathy.

A speech therapist finds employment opportunities in speech therapy practices, but also in various other facilities such as hospitals or institutions for early intervention. In addition, there are further training and further education opportunities for speech therapists as part of a degree in speech therapy.

Treatments

A Speech therapist deals with a wide range of clinical pictures in his work. First of all, swallowing disorders, which affect the processes of food intake and transmission and which are often caused by neurological diseases, represent a large area of ​​treatment for speech therapists.

The speech therapist also often treats Parkinson's patients who, due to their illness, have less agile speaking apparatus, which can lead to monotonous and indistinct articulation. Stroke patients who can no longer speak at all or who suffer from impaired flow of speech are also treated by speech therapists.

In childhood patients, the speech therapist often has to deal with speech disorders such as so-called late speaking, which affects children who have mastered less than 50 words by the age of 24 months. In order to counteract a possible language development disorder, an early diagnosis is particularly important here.

Lisp or stuttering, in which planned words and sentences cannot be uttered or can only be uttered haltingly, are also part of the treatment area of ​​a speech therapist. A speech therapist also treats hearing disorders, which can often have an impact on language development.

Diagnosis & examination methods

During a therapy session, the Speech therapist first of all articulation, grammar, vocabulary as well as the writing and reading skills of the patient.

By further examining the breathing, voice and swallowing functions, a suitable treatment method is now selected, taking medical findings into account. Depending on the clinical picture, very different therapeutic measures are carried out by the speech therapist.

In addition to performing breathing and relaxation exercises, the speech therapist supports stroke patients, for example, in regaining motor skills and speech memory. Stuttering patients are taught techniques to liquefy the disturbed speech flow and to reduce the disturbance mechanisms. With children, on the other hand, language can be trained using images.

In addition, the speech therapist often makes use of different devices such as musical instruments or noise boxes to promote auditory perception during the sessions. Materials such as straws or blow grinders are also used to promote oral motor skills. To improve fine motor skills, pens and finger paints are used as movements to support the sound, while modeling clay or sand can be used to promote tactile-kinesthetic perception.

A speech therapist also often works with children’s patients with songs, rhymes or stories in order to test the child’s level of linguistic development through playful communication and to encourage it accordingly.

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What should the patient pay attention to?

When choosing one Speech therapists there are some important points to consider. First of all, the patient should find out beforehand from a doctor whether speech therapy treatment is really necessary.

If this is the case, the doctor will issue the patient with a prescription for medicinal products. The costs for these medically prescribed treatments are covered by the health insurance company. It is also important that the selected speech therapist specializes in the disease to be treated.

In addition, the treatments are usually only successful if the selected speech therapist aligns the improvement of language skills to the everyday life of the respective patient. You should also ask about the involvement of caregivers in the treatment, because they can offer the patient support in everyday life by learning therapy methods.