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Speech therapy is the treatment of speech problems and disorders. Experts
in the profession of speech therapy work with children and adults whose
speech interferes with communication, calls attention to itself, and
frustrates both speaker and listener. These specialists, called speech
therapists, evaluate and correct defective speech and teach new speech
skills. The field of speech therapy is often called speech pathology, and
speech therapists are sometimes known as speech-language pathologists or
speech clinicians.
Types and causes of speech defects.
Speech therapists divide speech defects into five main types: (1)
articulation problems, such as the inability to produce certain sounds;
(2) stammering, cluttering (rapid, slurred speech), and other fluency
problems; (3) voice disorders, including problems of pitch, voice
quality, and volume; (4) delayed speech, characterized by a child's
slow language development; and (5) aphasia, the partial or total loss
of the ability to speak or understand language.
Some speech defects result from a physical condition, such as brain damage,
cleft palate, a disease of the larynx, or partial or complete deafness.
Other speech defects may be caused by a person's environment. For example, a
child who receives little encouragement to talk at home may not develop
normal speech skills. Severe emotional problems, such as pressure to succeed
or a lack of love, can also lead to speech difficulties.
Diagnosis.
In many schools, speech therapists test students regularly for speech
disorders. If students have a speech problem, they receive therapy at the
school, or they go to a speech clinic for treatment. Many doctors,
psychologists, and teachers refer people with speech defects to such
clinics.
Speech therapists diagnose their patients' speech problems and try to learn
their causes. They take detailed case histories and give their patients
special speech and hearing tests. A patient may need medical or
psychological treatment in addition to speech therapy.
Treatment.
The speech therapist first gains the confidence of the patient. For the
best results, the individual should enjoy being with the therapist and want
to follow instructions.
The method of treatment varies from case to case. The speech therapist must
consider the age of the patient, the case history, the type of speech
disorder, and the information gained during therapy. The therapist talks to
the patient's family, teachers, and others who have close contact. The
success of the treatment depends largely on gaining the cooperation of these
individuals.
Most children develop speech habits until about the age of 8. Thus, when
working with a young patient, the therapist uses methods that help stimulate
the development of good speech habits. With older patients, the therapist
must use corrective measures. First, the patients must be helped to identify
their speech problems and to tell the difference between their speech and
normal speech.
Many therapists use audio and video recording machines. Patients who
mispronounce the "r" sound may be able to identify their error by listening
to themselves on a tape recorder and by watching the movement of their lips
and tongue on a video screen. The therapist pronounces the sound correctly,
and the patient hears and sees the difference.
During the second stage of treatment, the therapist teaches the patient new
speech skills. Tongue exercises and speech drills may be used. After the
patients have improved their speech, they learn to use their skills in
everyday situations.
Speech therapy may be given individually or in groups. Therapists put
patients in groups if they think that contact with people who have similar
defects will bring rapid improvement. Many persons feel more at home and
less self-conscious in a group than when alone with a therapist. They also
receive encouragement by listening to others and by hearing the improvement
of members of the group. Most patients with complex speech problems, such as
aphasia, receive individual therapy. Speech specialists feel that individual
attention in such cases achieves faster results than does group therapy.
Some patients attend both individual and group sessions.
History.
People have studied speech and speech problems for more than 2,000 years.
However, little progress in the treatment of speech defects occurred until
the 1700's and 1800's. During the 1700's, speech specialists worked mostly
with the deaf. Successful teachers of the deaf included Thomas Braidwood, a
Scottish mathematician. Braidwood taught his students to talk by starting
with simple sounds and then progressing to syllables and, finally, words.
The 1800's brought much research into the causes and treatment of
stuttering. In 1817, Jean Marie Itard, a French doctor, declared that
stuttering resulted from a weakness of the tongue and larynx nerves. He
recommended exercises to cure stutterers. During the late 1800's, Adolf
Kussmaul, a German doctor, wrote about the physical and psychological causes
of stuttering. Today, speech therapists agree that there is no single
cause.
Speech therapy became a profession in the early 1900's. In Europe, it was
associated with the medical profession. During the 1920's, schools for
training speech therapists opened in several European countries. In the
United States, speech therapy became closely allied with education,
psychology, and speech.
During World War II (1939-1945), many servicemen developed speech defects as
a result of war injuries. The need for speech rehabilitation services
attracted large numbers of men and women to the profession of speech
therapy. Many speech clinics opened, and research increased into speech
problems and their causes. Since the end of World War II, the field of
speech therapy has expanded rapidly.
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