Role of Speech and Language Therapist in a Rehabilitation Team

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Introduction

Speech and language therapists, also known as speech and language pathologists, are specialists in the area of communication, voice, speech, language, hearing, feeding, swallowing, as well as the social and cognitive aspects of communication. They provide assessment, diagnosis, treatment and support across the life span for people who have difficulties with human communication, feeding, and swallowing in order to achieve their maximum potential. In this context, human communication encompasses all those processes associated with the comprehension and production of oral and written language, as well as non-verbal and/or alternative communication. Communication and swallowing are broad terms encompassing many facets of function.

• Communication includes speech production and fluency, language, cognition, voice, resonance, and hearing.

• Swallowing includes all aspects of swallowing, including related feeding behaviors.

Speech and language therapists provide a wide range of clinical and other professional services. They are independent professionals who make decisions based on their professional judgement and evidence, educational and clinical expertise, which means that their services are not prescribed or supervised by another professional. However, collaboration with other professionals is an important part of their work.

Speech and Language Therapy is governed internationally by the International Association of Communications Sciences and Disorders, which is ta non-profit worldwide organisation of professionals and scientists in communication, voice, speech language pathology, audiology and swallowing. Speech and Language therapy is an autonomous profession, which means they can operate as members of a health service provider or rehabilitation teams or as independent practitioners who can accept referrals from a range of sources, including from an individual themselves (self-referral) or from other people involved with that individual.

Where Speech and Language Therapists Work

Speech and language therapists work together with children, adults, families, carers to carry out assessments and plan personalised therapy programmes which meet each individual’s communication and swallowing needs. They work in wide variety of contexts and environments including: community health centres, hospital wards and intensive care units, outpatient departments, children’s centres, mainstream and special schools, assessment units, day centres and nursing homes, clients’ homes and courtrooms, prisons and young offenders’ institutions

Knowledge and Skills for Clinical Practice

Intervention

Language Intervention

• The speech and language therapists will interact with a child by playing and talking, using pictures, books, objects, or ongoing events to stimulate language development. The therapist may model correct vocabulary and grammar, and use repetition exercises to build language skills.

Articulation Intervention

• Articulation, or sound production, exercises involve having the speech and language therapist model correct sounds and syllables in words and sentences for a child, often during play activities. The level of play is age-appropriate and related to the child's specific needs. The SLP will show the child how to make certain sounds, such as the "r" sound, and may show how to move the tongue to make specific sounds.

Oral-motor/Feeding and Swallowing Interventions

• Speech and language therapists use a variety of oral exercises including facial massage and various tongue, lip, and jaw exercises to strengthen the muscles of the mouth for eating, drinking, and swallowing. ThesSpeech and language therapists may also introduce different food textures and temperatures to increase a child's oral awareness during eating and swallowing.

Resources

• Cieza A, Causey K, Kamenov K, Hanson SW, Chatterji S, Vos T. Global Estimates of the need for rehabilitation based on the Global Burden of Disease study 2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. The Lancet. 2020 Dec 1.

References 

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