It is often the case that people hand responsibility for their health wholly over to health professionals, which includes waiting for a referral from a medical professional before taking action in regards something that is impacting their or a loved one’s life, such as issues related to speech.

This needn’t be the case, however. Finding the best online speech therapy is easier than ever, allowing individuals to take back control. Whilst care must be taken to avoid unscrupulous actors, there are many highly-qualified and experienced health professionals, such as those here at Psychologyhelp.com, freely available for you to contact.

Adult speech therapy is one area where therapeutic interventions can easily and effectively be translated into online speech therapy for adults, making such resources more accessible to everyone.

What kind of speech issues can online speech therapy for adults help with?

It is important to make the distinction between speech issues and language issues with the former encompassing a person’s ability to form sounds and the latter relating to the ability to learn and understand words.

Whilst there are therapy options that can help with language issues, this section focuses specifically on speech issues.

Speech issues can be as varied as the people who experience them. However, there tend to be common groups including but not limited to:

Stuttering

Stuttering is a speech condition that involves interruptions in the fluency of speech. These interruptions can take a number of forms. One form is though the involuntary repetition of words or sounds in words. Another form is blocks. This is when a person has difficulty in creating the sound they wish to make. A third form is prolongations. This is when words or sounds are stretched out in an unnatural way.

There are a number of understood behavioural reasons behind why a person stutters, including anxiety, stress and emotional distress. Even where a stutter is caused by biological reasons, psychological issues can result which impact recovery. Therapy has an excellent record in helping overcomes issues in both these situations.

Lisp

There are five types of lisp however the most well-known is the production of an ‘s’ sound instead of the ‘th’ sound. Therapy can help in retraining muscle usage so a person can produce the desired sound correctly.

Muteness

Muteness can be total or selective, but results from a psychological issue rather than a physical one. The reasons behind muteness can be varied, including shyness, anxiety, stress or social interactions such as bullying, all of which therapy is well equipped to help with.

Cluttering

Cluttering is a fluency issue characterised by rapid, jerky speech, often accompanied by excessive disfluencies such as ‘um’ and ‘er’. This can either be something a person experiences all the time or just in specific situations such as public speaking.

Spasmodic Dysphonia

As a person ages, the nervous system and muscles can weaken resulting in vocal chord spasms causing the voice sounding shaky or hoarse. Therapy can help a person understand work around and overcome the physical issues they are experiencing.

Apraxia

Apraxia is a disorder referring to impaired motor functions resulting from brain damage. The has been no specific approach shown to be the most effective for apraxia based speech issues and so therapist will usually work with the client finding which approach is most effective for them.

Whilst some may be concerned about this, finding the right approach is usually a fairly quick process and often more than one exercise can be beneficial and so it is a worthwhile process.

Dysarthria

Dysarthria is also a result of brain damage but in this case the damage results in the muscles in the face, throat and chest weakening, which results in difficulty with speech.

Therapy can help a person learn how to speak using the muscles strength they do have and using tailored physical exercises designed to maintain and build strength in the affected areas.

What is the best online speech therapy?

As mentioned above, speech issues are incredibly varied, and so there is no ‘one size fits all’ therapy. As such, it is important that therapist are flexible in approach and humble enough to acknowledge when their skills are limited in a required approach.

Fortunately, here at psychologyhelp.com we have a diverse group of therapists whose skills encompass an array of approaches meaning we can be sure of matching you with not only the therapist with the right skill set for your specific issue, but also one with whom you are comfortable and connect with.

What does online speech therapy cost?

One of the first questions any savvy consumer will ask is how much does online speech therapy cost? Especially when we are all under so many other financial pressures. However, we should also be asking what is not overcoming my problems costing me?

As with all therapy, cost can be dependent on the issue, its severity. Prices can also vary between therapists.

Online therapy conveys a number of savings compared to traditional therapy however. Online therapist usually have fewer overheads to contend with and so these savings can be passed on to you.

Furthermore, savings in your time must also be taken into account. No travelling or waiting means you can fit sessions into free time you may have during a lunch break or while the kids are at their swimming lesson.

Please contact us here at psychologyhelp.com for further information on our pricing structure.

What happens in speech therapy for adults?

Often, and understandably, people are wary of engaging in therapy as they are unsure what happens in speech therapy for adults.

As alluded to in the sections above, what happens in online speech therapy for adults varies depending on the issues being experienced. At the same time, different approaches will be more effective for some than others. In early sessions it is likely that a therapist will explore a number of potentially effective options to discover the best online speech therapy for you.

A number of methods and tools are available within each approach including the following:

• Oral motor therapy techniques
• Sound production exercises
• Posture exercises
• Breathing exercises
• Strength building exercises
• Confidence building exercises

Furthermore, if there is an underlying psychological issues the therapist may also utilise other therapeutic methods such as CBT, relaxation techniques or activities designed to improve cognitive functions such as memory or speech organisation.

No matter how long you have been experiencing a speech issue, if you feel it is negatively affecting your life, contact us today to see how we can help you.