Friday 8 August 2014

For Parents Seeking Speech Therapy St Petersburg FL Is An Optimal Place To Find Help For Their Child

By Annabelle Holman


The speech-language pathologist is the allied health profession that evaluates and treats communicative and swallowing disorders. There are numerous components of both speech production and language. If a parent is seeking help for a child in need of speech therapy St Petersburg FL is an optimal place to find a therapist in private practice.

The qualifications required for being a licensed clinician are set by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. It begins with an undergraduate degree in a related field. Next comes earning a masters degree from an accredited program. After a year designated as the clinical fellowship year a Certificate of Clinical Competence is granted.

If the individual plans to go into research, a doctorate is required for that. All are required to complete continuing education credits after a three year period. This makes certain they are aware of new developments in the field.

A hospital, nursing home or school might offer positions to this professional. In this capacity he or she will identify and treat all clients who have voice disorders and other communicative disorders. A cause might be genetic, cleft palate for example. It can also be due to deafness or partial hearing loss.

They can evaluate the child with a delay, stuttering or phonation disorder. The elderly individual may have lost the ability to speak due to a stroke, for example. Hearing impaired or deaf individuals speak differently due to the hearing loss.

This therapist may specialize in working with the hearing impaired. She or he will do auditory testing to identify the individual who can benefit by the use of a hearing aid. Non-impaired individuals may use the services of the pathologist therapist as well.

Some actors hire a speech therapist to help them perfect an accent for a specific part in a play. Voice quality that is rough can be improved by working with this professional. If the education is completed to the doctoral level, the individual can go into research in this field.

They might work as part of a multidisciplinary team. They may refer the client to an audiologist to be fit for a hearing aid. Information may be passed on to doctors, nurses and especially to parents.

A baby may be born with a cleft palate. This should be corrected by surgery as soon as possible. If surgery is not done, the child will not be able to nurse or to talk when he or she is older.

If a young child begins to stutter, it may be worsened if a parent focuses on it too much. By correcting the child, even though with good intentions, it often grows worse. A stutterer can learn positive ways to overcome this disorder.

Unfortunately, some segments of society still find it amusing to ridicule speech that is disordered. One television show with wide popularity makes fun of the research scientist who cannot pronounce the r sound and it emits as a w sound. This is degrading to those afflicted with such a disorder.

The remedy for this attitude on the part of the public might be to advocate through community awareness programs. Each licensed speech therapist has an obligation to participate in training assistants and other supportive help. The families of the subject can benefit from counseling on how to cope with the situation in a way that will promote improvement.




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