Speech Language Pathology

Labette Health's Speech Language Pathology Department assists individuals who have difficulty communicating, including speech, hearing, reading and writing and treatment of swallowing deficits. These difficulties result from stroke, traumatic brain injury, developmental delays, degenerative disease or many other related diagnoses.

Speech therapy works with individuals as an inpatient or outpatient, at home or on the skilled nursing facility to achieve the optimum level of function to allow for return to a more independent function.

Services

• Memory retention: Thought process organization and judgment skills to improve memory.
• Teaching strategies to ensure a safe swallowing mechanism, as well as safe oral intake.
• Aid in speech production and production of expression of language.
• Facilitate comprehension of spoken and written information.
• Aural rehabilitation for hearing impaired.
• Provide education to family about communication problems and strategies to facilitate interaction.
• Provide inservice training to healthcare staff.

Specific Areas of Treatment Include

• Expressive and Receptive Language to include aphasia, dysarthria, and apraxia treatment
• Teaching strategies to ensure a safe swallowing mechanism, as well as safe oral intake. These strategies include Deep Pharyngeal Neuromuscular Stimulation, Modified Barium Swallow Studies and Strengthening
• Provide aid for Cognitive Tasks through problem solving, writing, judgement, reading, and thought process organization.
• Reading and Writing
• Memory retention
• Aural rehabilitation for hearing impaired.
• Aid in Voice Rehabilitation
• Child Development Program including speech and language delay and/or deficitis

These are just some of the areas that speech therapy addresses. There may be other problems that are not mentioned that interfere with the ability to communicate wants, needs, or ideas effectively and/or swallow efficiently.