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Expect the Best in Speech Therapy Care
At Sacred Heart Health System, our speech therapy team is dedicated to helping patients overcome conditions that that affect their speech, language, cognitive-communication, voice, swallowing, fluency and other related disorders. Our speech therapy team works with patients of all ages from infants to adults in both inpatient and outpatient settings.
Who Can Benefit From Speech Therapy?
A variety of different conditions can be greatly improved by speech therapy.
Some of these conditions include:
• Alzheimer's or dementia
• Aphasia
• Brain injury
• Cerebral palsy
• Cleft palate
• Developmental delays or disorders
• Emotional problems
• Hearing loss
• Mental retardation
• Parkinson's
• Stroke
• Stuttering
• Swallowing problems brought on by disease, such as cancer
What Does a Speech Therapist Do?
Speech therapists, also referred to as speech-language pathologists, help patients develop, or recover, reliable communication and swallowing skills. They provide a comprehensive plan from diagnosis to recovery for a wide variety of patients.
Diagnosis & Treatment Plans
Our speech therapy team uses standardized tests and special instruments to analyze and diagnose the nature and extent of a patient's speech, language and swallowing issues. By utilizing these tools, they can then develop a specialized treatment plan that fits each patient’s own unique needs.
Speech Disorders
Our speech therapy team is trained to treat a variety of congenital and acquired disorders that can affect a patient’s ability to speak properly. For patients with little or no speech capability, our therapists may use alternative communication methods, including automated devices and sign language, during treatment. They teach patients how to make sounds, improve their voices, or increase their oral or written language skills to communicate more effectively. In turn, they will teach the patient how to use these alternative communication methods at home so they can function independently.
Stuttering Therapy
In our pediatric rehabilitation department, Sacred Heart also has a highly-specialized speech therapist that has special certification in evaluating, fitting and providing the Speech-Easy device to increase fluency of speech for those who stutter.
Swallowing Therapy
Swallowing therapy is used to help teach individuals how to strengthen muscles or use other methods to swallow without choking or inhaling food or liquid. Our therapists are trained to work with a variety of patients from infants to adults who have swallowing disorders or conditions.
Support & Education
Our speech therapists will also work with a patient's family to help them understand not only the patient's condition, but also how to cope with any stress and misunderstandings that may surface. They will work with family members to recognize and change behavior patterns that impede communication and treatment and show them communication-enhancing techniques to use at home.
Contact Us
If you have any questions about Sacred Heart’s Speech Therapy Services, please call (850) 416-5221.
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