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Who are ASLPs? What are Hearing and speech impairments? Does treatment strategy HELP?

Hearing and speech impairments can affect anyone, both children and adults. There are many causes for these impairments, whether it’s physical, developmental, or from an illness, and there are many ways.

Hearing impairment

Hearing impairment is a condition in which you can’t completely receive sounds through your ears. It can fluctuate or be permanent. The amount of loss can vary from being hard of hearing to complete deafness to treat them. Hearing loss can either be conductive or sensorineural.

a) Conductive hearing impairment relates to (ear canal, eardrum, middle ear and its bones)

b) Sensorineural hearing loss relates to one of the following (inner ear, nerves in your ear, combination of your inner ear and the nerves in your ear)

Hearing loss can be due to a wide array of things, including:(Malformation of the ear, ear infection, allergies, tumours, impacted earwax, otosclerosis, a hereditary disorder causing deafness due to overgrowth of bone in the inner ear, exposure to loud noise, head trauma, virus or disease, aging)

These problems can affect one or both of your ears. Treatment can include medicine or, in some cases, surgery. Many different treatments help hearing problems.

Hearing aids and cochlear implants amplify sounds for better hearing. Other techniques, such as lip reading, can help you learn to adapt to hearing impairment.

Early intervention in children, before 6 months of age, can help them develop and learn at the same rate as their peers. Because children with hearing impairments learn the skill of hearing, rather than recover from their impairment, it’s often called hearing rehabilitation.

Hearing rehabilitation by Audiologists includes:

●       Hearing aids

●       Listening strategies

●       Assistive technology, such as 

          FM systems

          Infrared systems

          Telephone amplifiers

●       Cochlear implants can also be helpful. These are devices that are surgically implanted into your ear. They use microphones to detect sound and transmit it to your auditory nerve, avoiding damaged portions of your ear.

●       Communication technique

Speech and language impairment

Speech and language impairment, also called communication disorder, is a condition in which you have trouble forming sounds. Speech and language impairments vary, from occasionally not being able to produce sentence, words, to not being able to produce sound at all. Symptoms of speech impairment include:

●       (Stuttering, adding extra sounds and words, elongating words, distorting sounds when talking, Visible frustration when trying to communicate, taking frequent pauses when trying to communicate, Problems with articulation, problems with your voice, articulation, or making sounds, phonological processes, or hearing and repeating sound pattern, developmental disorders, neurological disorders, genetic syndromes, hearing loss and illness)

Speech therapy can help individuals with a range of speech impairment conditions, such as:

●       speech fluency problems

●       stuttering disorders

●       language issues

●       voice disorders, such as:

●       vocal cord nodules and polyps

●       vocal cord paralysis

●       spasmodic dysphonia

●       swallowing disorders, often a result of:

●       nervous system disorders

●      gastroesophageal reflex disease(GERD)

●       stroke

●       head or spinal cord injury

●       written language disorders

●       developmental disorders

Speech therapist will create a program for you, including:

●       activities to help you develop proper grammar and sentence structure

●       exercises to help you strengthen and learn how to move your lips, mouth, and tongue to make certain sounds

●       communication methods, such as (gestures, expressions and assistive technology)

Who are ASLP’s?

Audiologist are the primary health-care professionals who evaluate, diagnose, treat, and manage hearing loss and balance disorders in individuals of all ages from infants and teens to adults and the elderly.

A speech-language pathologist, also known as a speech therapist, is a health professional who diagnoses and treats communication and swallowing problems. They work with both children and adults in clinics, schools, and hospitals.

So , when you or your family members or any other individual around you facing any problems mentioned above should immediately contact the nearby Audiologist and speech language pathologist (ASLP’s).

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