Speech Therapy

SPEECH THERAPY AT THE SHOOK REHABILITATION & WELLNESS CENTER

From lips to shoulders, our mouths, tongues, jaws, and throats perform crucial tasks every day. They deliver the words we use to communicate. They consume the food that keeps us healthy and the liquids that hydrate our bodies.

When that complex system goes awry, our quality of life diminishes. We can’t express our needs and desires. Inability to chew or swallow properly causes malnutrition and weight loss. We can’t socialize over meals or interact with friends and family.

The Shook Rehabilitation & Wellness Center offers speech therapy to correct all those deficits, addressing the entire scope of functions assigned to our mouths and throats.

SPEECH THERAPY EXPLAINED

WHAT IS SPEECH THERAPY?

Speech therapy evaluates and treats speech production, language, voice, swallowing, and cognitive disorders

WHO CAN BENEFIT FROM SPEECH THERAPY?

People who have had a stroke, have Parkinson’s disease, or are experiencing dementia or Alzheimer’s can learn to manage and overcome their communications and swallowing challenges. People whose vocal and eating capabilities have been altered by injury, cancer, or surgery can also benefit.

HOW DOES SPEECH THERAPY HELP IMPROVE CHEWING AND SWALLOWING?

Chewing is speech, utilizing many of the same muscles. Often, stroke patients are downgraded to soft foods because their chewing and swallowing capabilities are diminished. Or, they could be at risk of aspirating. Speech therapy can strengthen the muscles used for safely chewing and swallowing our food and drink. Through speech therapy, nutrition improves and weight loss and dehydration are reversed. Speech therapy can also reduce the risk of pneumonia that often accompanies swallowing difficulties.

HOW DOES SPEECH THERAPY IMPROVE COMMUNICATIONS?

Patients come to us with speaking difficulties caused by a variety of reasons. The voice might be weak from surgery, stroke, or muscular degeneration. Speech therapy strengthens the muscles to improve voice projection, so patients can make their needs heard. It also rebuilds the ability to articulate distinct sounds and be understood

THE SHOOK REHABILITATION & WELLNESS CENTER DIFFERENCE

The Shook Rehabilitation & Wellness Center’s speech therapy services play a central role in restoring patients to vitality and good health. We offer:

  • Customized treatment: The Shook Rehabilitation & Wellness Center therapists are highly qualified and trained in a wide range of techniques. They design each treatment plan to target the needs of the individual patient, drawing from a comprehensive tool box of expertise, equipment, and research-based approaches.
  • State-of-the-art therapy: The Shook Rehabilitation & Wellness clinicians are certified in the most beneficial therapies available. For instance, Vital Stimulation uses electrical stimulation to improve swallowing deficits. Deep Pharyngeal Neuromuscular Stimulation, or DPNS, can efficiently restore long-term swallowing functionality by stimulating the nerves that contract the muscles of the throat and tongue.
  • Holistic approach: The body is a complex series of interconnected systems. The Shook Rehabilitation & Wellness Center’s health care clinicians view and treat the whole patient, assuring that speech therapy is delivered in conjunction with any other occupational and physical therapies needed to achieve the highest possible functioning.