Speech Pathology and Speech Therapy in NC
Dr. Vicki Parker, director of The Brain Trainer, holds a Ph.D. in speech language pathology. Speech pathology, also known as speech therapy, may be new to you. A speech pathologist evaluates and treats cognitive and communication disorders including accent reduction treatment.
Cognition includes the building blocks of how we think. These building blocks are attention, memory, logic/reasoning skills, auditory and visual processing (how the brain processes sounds and images), and processing speed (how quickly the brain takes in new information).
Communication is the ability to convey our messages to others. Troubles in this area may be due to:
- Language challenges. Children and adults can have difficulty understanding vocabulary, concepts, directions, sentence structure, conversation, or narratives. The therapist looks at how a patient expresses himself, such as finding the correct word, putting words together to form sentences, sequencing thoughts, and expressing ideas.
- An inability to sustain conversation. What people communicate is important as how they communicate. Does the child or adult have a range of topics they can discuss? If your child seldom initiates conversation except to ask for something from you, or if an adult with a brain injury has trouble starting or sustaining a conversation, those can be signs of a communication disorder.
- A problem with the physical act of speaking. Speech therapists are best known for their work with speech production. Sound disorders and motor speech disorders can affect the clearness of speech. We also see clients who have tongue positioning problems that may be interfering with orthodontics, dental hygiene, sleep, and appearance.
Along with talking, people use other sounds, gestures, body language, and facial expressions to communicate. Speech pathology helps clients use the right communication skills for each setting.
Speech therapy can help patients make significant and lasting gains in communication and thinking skills. Dr. Vicki Parker has seen the results during her decades as a speech language pathologist in (Ballantyne/ waxhaw) Charlotte, NC.
