We have written so many subjects regarding to speech therapy. Nevertheless, how many things do you know about speech therapy itself? Can you answer questions such as, “What is speech therapy?”, or, “What makes someone considered as the one who needs speech therapy?”
Through this article, we would like to try to answer the questions given above. We also present other related matters. In order to make it easier for you to understand the presented information, we make the structure of this article as follows:
- Definition of speech therapy
- Difficulties in Speech Therapy
We wish you a very happy learning about speech therapy!
Definition of Speech Therapy
What is speech therapy? Speech therapy is a methodical approach meant to improve or eliminate language and speech difficulties.
What’s the name of a person who provides speech therapy? Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) is the person who provides the service. Commonly, SLP is known as “speech therapist”.
Difficulties in Speech Therapy
What kind of difficulties does the speech therapist face? First of all, we have to understand the differences between speech and language.
According to SLPs, speech has relation with the method of communicating. In a speech, someone is forming sounds together with the effort of the following variables:
- Lips
- Tongue
- Breath
- Voice
- Cheeks
- Facial muscles
When someone has difficulties in making sounds and combining them in order to create words as the act of speaking, he/she has a speech problem.
Speech problems also can be seen in these factors:
- The use of voice
- The use of intonation
- The rhythm and timing of speech
Misarticulations are another kind of speech problem. Someone who mispronounces, such as “dags” for “dogs” would be the example of misarticulations.
Not having enough breath to speak or being hoarse all the time is also a speech problem.
Stuttering or stammering is a speech problem too. Someone who has disorder of rhythm and timing is a stutterer.
Once again, speech disorders or speech difficulties are commonly about how to speak and talk correctly. It is not about sharing ideas, feelings, or thoughts with others.
In the next article, we will write about difficulties with language.
