Social Communication – Providence Medical Center

You Deserve To Be Heard Clearly

Social communication refers to a person’s ability to use language to interact with others in a variety of situations. Our speech therapist also works with people with swallowing disorders or difficulties.

Disorders Treated by Providence Medical Center Speech Therapy

Aphasia

Aphasia is an acquired neurogenic language disorder resulting from an injury to the brain. A speech-language pathologist will treat problems associated with aphasia including spoken language expression, spoken language comprehension, written expression, and reading comprehension.

Dementia

Dementia is a syndrome resulting from acquired brain disease that is characterized by a progressive decline in memory and other cognitive domains. When severe enough it interferes with daily living and independent functioning. Speech therapy treatment includes strategies to improve memory, attention, problem solving, and higher-level thinking skills. The goal is to help an individual stay as independent as possible.

Dysphagia

Dysphagia is a swallowing disorder involving the oral cavity, pharynx, esophagus, or gastro-esophageal junction. Speech therapy will provide rehabilitation exercises to restore normal swallowing function, modification of diet consistency, and patient postures, or a combination of these to help maintain adequate nutrition and hydration.

Social Communication Disorder

Social communication disorder is characterized by difficulties with the use of verbal and nonverbal language for social purposes. Primary difficulties are in social interaction, social cognition, and pragmatics. The focus of speech therapy is to improve active engagement and building independence in natural community environments.

SPEAK OUT!/LOUD Crowd

SPEAK OUT! emphasizes speaking with intent and converts speech from an automatic function to an intentional act. Upon graduation from SPEAK OUT!, patients transition to the LOUD Crowd. The patient and speech-language pathologist complete speech, voice, and cognitive exercises.

“

Parkinson’s is a disease that makes your speech feel like the letter G in lasagna. You’re surrounded by a bunch of people but no one can hear you. When I first got diagnosed with Parkinson’s I knew something was going wrong with my voice. The harder I tried to talk the softer it seemed my voice was becoming and the mumbling started. People would try and be nice and tell me that they were “going deaf” because they couldn’t understand what I was trying to say. After repeating my whole conversation 2-3 times, I decided I needed to find help.

I was taking up Rock Steady Boxing already at our local Hospital fitness center. One day Kayla, the speech therapist, came and gave us a speech on this new program that they were starting. It was called SPEAK OUT Speak with intent, I knew this is what I needed.

Since then I have been able to carry conversations with people like no other. I will admit I have a ways to go but I have seen so much improvement. After taking the class I feel it has helped me immensely. I feel now the LOUD CROWD GROUP will get me to the satisfaction of where I once was with my voice, Thanks a million to Kayla and the SPEAK OUT program for giving me part of my normal life back.

Boyd Janssen

SPEAK OUT! Participant

Listen as Boyd reads the “Grandfather Passage” and notice the difference in his speech before and after the SPEAK OUT! program.