Speech pathologists use speech therapy to help patients with hearing problems improve their quality of life. They work on interventions for speech disorders related to voice, articulation, fluency, resonance and other factors. They also collaborate with audiologists to create treatment plans for patients. This treatment helps your child develop the ability to listen.
When children can process what they hear, they can learn to speak clearly. Hear the Beat is a group of speech pathologists and hearing specialists at Nationwide Children's Hospital. They focus on speech, language, hearing, learning, and emotional development through music and movement. The therapist can provide information and instructions about activities at home for parents to work on with the child.
The speech therapist will discuss your goals for your child in terms of communication options and educational placement. As part of the MDT, SLTs play a specialized role in the identification, evaluation and (re) empowerment of deaf people. By working remotely in this way, all providers must ensure that this is not an obstacle for a deaf person and reasonable accommodations must be made to ensure access for all. It is the responsibility of all service providers (health, education, employers, etc.) to make reasonable adjustments to improve the quality of communication and increase the availability of information and the ability of deaf people to access services.
Similarly, some deaf people can use listening and oral language to communicate, some may use strategies such as lip reading, while others may use sign language, such as British Sign Language (BSL), and some people may use a combination of speech and signs. Reports have shown that deaf people may have difficulty accessing and communicating with different service providers. The images (for example, dogs barking, lawnmowers) in this audiogram represent everyday noises and the shaded area (sounds of speech) represents the sounds of speech. Therapists will provide you with the skills needed to develop your child's oral language and, in turn, you will provide them with valuable feedback on your child's development at home and outside of therapy.
The hearing program at Nationwide Children's Hospital offers many speech services to meet the individual needs of your child and family. It's important to recognize that deaf people may identify with a different term and prefer to use it. As speech and language therapists (SLT), one of the most important aspects of being aware deaf relates to communication. People identified with ANSD may have different levels of hearing and, therefore, the treatment plan for people with this disorder can be very variable and requires close collaboration between professionals, usually an audiologist, an SLT and a qualified teacher for the deaf.
