Swallow Therapy
Speech-Language Pathology swallowing therapy (also called dysphagia therapy) is treatment used to improve swallowing safety and efficiency when someone has difficulty swallowing food, liquids, or saliva.
Dysphasia (Aphasia) is a language disorder caused by damage to the brain areas responsible for speech and language, most commonly after a stroke, head injury, brain tumor, or neurological disease.
Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder caused by weakness, paralysis, incoordination, or abnormal muscle tone affecting the muscles used for speaking (lips, tongue, vocal cords, diaphragm).
FEES stands for Fiberoptic Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallowing. It is a procedure commonly performed by a speech-language pathologist (often with a physician or other trained provider) to evaluate how a person swallows.
Speech Therapy
Speech Therapy helps people improve their communication and swallowing abilities.
Aphasia (primary language disorder after stroke) happens when stroke damages language-dominant areas of the brain (often the left hemisphere).
Types include:
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Broca’s aphasia (expressive aphasia):
Speech is slow and effortful. The person knows what they want to say but struggles to form words/sentences. -
Wernicke’s aphasia (receptive aphasia):
Speech is fluent but may not make sense. Comprehension of spoken/written language is impaired. -
Global aphasia: Severe form affecting both understanding and expression.
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Anomic aphasia: Main difficulty is finding the right words (especially nouns).
Cognitive-communication disorders – difficulties with memory, attention, problem-solving, or social communication
Dysarthria happens when the muscles used for speech are weak, slow, or poorly coordinated due to brain damage. Typical voice changes include slurred or "mumbled" speech, quiet or strained voice, monotone pitch (less expression), breathiness or harsh voice quality, reduced speech clarity.
Apraxia of speech ( motor planning problem) is when the brain has trouble planning movements needed for speech. Common signs are groping for words or sound, inconsistent speech errors, speech that gets worse with longer or more complex words, effort, broken speech rhythm.