What Is Speech Therapy?

A speech therapist walks into a bar, and the bartender says "I don't know why they sent you. My speech is just fine." 

Okay... so we promise our jokes are funnier in person! But if you find yourself surprised that a speech therapist (or speech-language pathologist) does more than help with speech, you are not alone! The vast majority of the patients we work with start off by abruptly stating "I don't know why my doctor sent me here. I don't have anything wrong with my speech." And nearly anyone who asks us what we do for a living will quickly respond "Oh! when my child was little, they couldn't say their R's!" or "I had a cousin that used to stutter!" These are all things that a speech therapist addresses, but a speech therapist does so much more!

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) provides the following definition: "Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) work to prevent, assess, diagnose, and treat speech, language, social communication, cognitive-communication, and swallowing disorders in children and adults."

At Brighter Path, we specialize in providing rehabilitative and compensatory therapy services to adults who have developed deficits in one or more of these areas related to a wide variety of illnesses or injuries including but not limited to...

• Concussion / Traumatic Brain Injury
• Stroke
• Cancer of the Head, Neck, Lungs, and Digestive System  
• PASC (aka "Long COVID")
• Chronic Heart and Lung Disease
• Degenerative Neurological Conditions such as Parkinson's Disease, ALS, Dementia, etc. 
• Postoperative nerve injuries that affect speech, voice, swallowing, and / or breathing
• Orofacial and Laryngeal Trauma
• Upper Digestive Tract Disorders 

To learn more about what speech-language pathologists treat, check out our services section!