scholarly journals Role of speech and language therapy in managing dysphagia and dysphonia in lung cancer

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. e227629
Author(s):  
Ceri Childs ◽  
Sally K Archer
Keyword(s):  
Lung Cancer ◽  
Vocal Cord Palsy ◽  
Voice Rehabilitation ◽  
Speech And Language ◽  
Language Therapy ◽  
Silent Aspiration ◽  
Speech And Language Therapy ◽  
Specialist Services

A 75-year-old person was referred to speech and language therapy for voice rehabilitation following diagnosis of unilateral vocal cord palsy, secondary to relapsed non-small-cell lung cancer. On assessment, the patient presented with moderate–severe dysphonia. In addition, they presented with moderate pharyngeal stage dysphagia with risk of silent aspiration, which was successfully managed using a simple head turn strategy. This presentation is not atypical for patients who have disease in the upper chest or mediastinum and an increase in awareness and anticipation of such symptoms, with timely referral to appropriate specialist services, could help prevent complications associated with dysphagia, such as aspiration pneumonia and worse quality of life.

scholarly journals ‘We definitely need more SLTs’: The transgender community’s perception of the role of speech and language therapy in relation to their voice, language, and communication needs

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 17-41
Author(s):  
Frances Creaven ◽  
Mary-Pat O’Malley-Keighran
Keyword(s):  
Medical Profession ◽  
Mental Health Research ◽  
Speech And Language ◽  
Language Therapy ◽  
Speech And Language Therapy ◽  
Language And Communication ◽  
Communication Needs ◽  
Communication Behaviours

According to Sydor (2013), it is critical to include all vulnerable, hard-to-reach groups in research in order to identify their specific needs. Transgender individuals can be considered as belonging to such groups. Speech, language, and non-verbal communication are often strongly related to gender. For transgender individuals experiencing mismatches between existing communication behaviours and their true gender, changes to these aspects of communication can help improve quality of life and mental health. Research has indicated that speech and language therapy (SLT) can successfully support the transgender (TG) community’s communication needs but, internationally, this intervention is under-utilised (Gelfer and Tice 2013; Hancock and Garabedian 2013). This qualitative study aimed to investigate the TG community’s understanding of the role of SLT in relation to their voice, language, and communication needs. It also explored how the TG community access the available care pathways and what factors are considered when making decisions relating to their participation in SLT. Two main themes, communication and SLT were identified. This study identified a continuing need to raise awareness of the breadth of the role of SLT within the TG community. As there is no defined referral pathway to SLT services, the research highlighted a need for the SLT profession to provide details of all trans-competent clinicians and to ensure that other members of the medical profession who interact with the trans community utilise this information to provide appropriate referrals.Keywords: transgender; communication needs; speech and language therapy; qualitative research; hard-to-reach; thematic analysis

Speech and language therapy in palliative care

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Luckett ◽  
Katherine L.P. Reid
Keyword(s):  
Palliative Care ◽  
Multidisciplinary Care ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Speech And Language ◽  
Language Therapy ◽  
Care Needs ◽  
Speech And Language Therapy ◽  
The Core ◽  
Specialist Services ◽  
Palliative Phase

Palliative care is an emerging specialty within the field of speech and language therapy (SLT); the discipline is currently under-represented both in specialist services and the research literature. This belies the fact that many patients in the palliative phase suffer problems with swallowing (dysphagia) and communication, the core domains of SLT practice. This chapter provides an overview of difficulties encountered in these domains by people with life-limiting conditions together with common approaches to assessment and management. Assessment and management should be person-centred, integrated into multidisciplinary care, and seek to maintain function via minimal intervention for maximum gain. More research is needed to inform appropriately integrated, person-centred models of SLT provision that enable difficulties with communication and swallowing to be addressed alongside other symptoms and care needs. It seems likely that difficulties in these domains are currently under-identified and under-treated in many cases.

scholarly journals tDCS over the motor cortex improves lexical retrieval of action words in poststroke aphasia

2018 ◽  
Vol 119 (2) ◽  
pp. 621-630 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meret Branscheidt ◽  
Julia Hoppe ◽  
Pienie Zwitserlood ◽  
Gianpiero Liuzzi
Keyword(s):  
Motor Cortex ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Lexical Retrieval ◽  
Semantic Concept ◽  
Motor Cortex Stimulation ◽  
Speech And Language ◽  
Language Therapy ◽  
Speech And Language Therapy

One-third of stroke survivors worldwide suffer from aphasia. Speech and language therapy (SLT) is considered effective in treating aphasia, but because of time constraints, improvements are often limited. Noninvasive brain stimulation is a promising adjuvant strategy to facilitate SLT. However, stroke might render “classical” language regions ineffective as stimulation sites. Recent work showed the effectiveness of motor cortex stimulation together with intensive naming therapy to improve outcomes in aphasia (Meinzer et al. 2016). Although that study highlights the involvement of the motor cortex, the functional aspects by which it influences language remain unclear. In the present study, we focus on the role of motor cortex in language, investigating its functional involvement in access to specific lexico-semantic (object vs. action relatedness) information in poststroke aphasia. To this end, we tested effects of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to the left motor cortex on lexical retrieval in 16 patients with poststroke aphasia in a sham-controlled, double-blind study design. Critical stimuli were action and object words, and pseudowords. Participants performed a lexical decision task, deciding whether stimuli were words or pseudowords. Anodal tDCS improved accuracy in lexical decision, especially for words with action-related content and for pseudowords with an “action-like” ending ( t15 = 2.65, P = 0.036), but not for words with object-related content and pseudowords with “object-like” characteristics. We show as a proof-of-principle that the motor cortex may play a specific role in access to lexico-semantic content. Thus motor-cortex stimulation may strengthen content-specific word-to-semantic concept associations during language treatment in poststroke aphasia. NEW & NOTEWORTHY The role of motor cortex (MC) in language processing has been debated in both health and disease. Recent work has suggested that MC stimulation together with speech and language therapy enhances outcomes in aphasia. We show that MC stimulation has a differential effect on object- and action-word processing in poststroke aphasia. We propose that MC stimulation may specifically strengthen word-to-semantic concept association in aphasia. Our results potentially provide a way to tailor therapies for language rehabilitation.

scholarly journals The role of the speech and language therapist in psychiatry

1996 ◽  
Vol 20 (9) ◽  
pp. 524-526
Author(s):  
N. J. Muir
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
Speech And Language ◽  
Language Therapy ◽  
Speech And Language Therapy ◽  
Language Therapist ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Golden Jubilee ◽  
Communication Impairments ◽  
Cognitive Neuropsychological

Speech and language therapy is a small profession. It only reached its golden jubilee year in 1995 and misleadingly, remains for many highly associated with the elocution training in which the profession had its genesis. In the last few years the greatest developments have been in the area of cognitive neuropsychological and functional (pragmatic) models for the assessment and management of language and communication. It is the premise of this article that speech and language therapists are likely to prove flexible and valuable members of the multidisciplinary team, with the ability to contribute a further dimension to care planning – that of specific clinical input to the wide range of language, speech and communication impairments associated with the major mental illnesses (Gravell & France, 1991).

Neurologic Music Therapy for Speech and Language Rehabilitation

2018 ◽  
pp. 714-737
Author(s):  
Yune S. Lee ◽  
Corene Thaut ◽  
Charlene Santoni
Keyword(s):  
Music Therapy ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
Apraxia Of Speech ◽  
Speech And Language ◽  
Language Therapy ◽  
Speech And Language Therapy ◽  
Sensory Deficits ◽  
Therapeutic Protocols ◽  
Neurologic Music Therapy

This chapter examines the connection between music and speech, and points out areas of intersection relative to the mechanisms guiding their practice, application, and execution. This work also investigates the role of neurologic music therapy as a developmental, remedial, and rehabilitative protocol in the area of speech and language. In order to operationalize findings, the chapter is divided into sections by speech and language disorder: dysarthria, apraxia of speech, aphasia, fluency, sensory deficits, voice disorders, and dyslexia. Literature is provided hereafter outlining the premise for music prescription relative to the aforementioned areas, as well as areas of speech and language therapy wherein music discernibly exists as a fundamental construct in various therapeutic protocols; the practice of singing being a main area of concentration. The review provides an overview of related research and outlines areas in preliminary stages of investigation.

scholarly journals 264 Incorporating Neurolinguistics and the Role of Speech and Language Therapy in a Specialist Memory Service

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (Supplement_3) ◽  
pp. iii17-iii65
Author(s):  
Lisa Sheridan ◽  
Cathy McHale ◽  
Joshi Dookhy ◽  
Tara Coughlan ◽  
Desmond O'Neill ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Speech And Language ◽  
Language Therapy ◽  
Unique Role ◽  
Speech And Language Therapy ◽  
Amnestic Mci ◽  
Language Difficulties ◽  
Communication Difficulties ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) is recognised as having a unique role in contributing to the overall neuropsychological assessment of people living with dementia and cognitive impairment. The role of the SLT within a memory clinic has become more widely understood. It is now recognised that speech and language characteristics are reported to be amongst the most reliable behavioural markers for distinguishing amongst different dementia subtypes, and specific analysis of a language production and delivery facilitates timely and more accurate diagnosis. Methods Patients with a language predominant presentation or those with subjective complaints of speech/language difficulties were referred for SLT assessment through the tertiary memory assessment and support service from January 2018 – March 2019. Assessment of speech and language skills, and overall cognitive communications skills were reviewed, and this information was used to aid with differential diagnosis and contribute to the person’s overall cognitive profile. The SLT attends weekly memory service interdisciplinary consensus diagnosis conference. Data was collected on these patients to observe the profiles of those patients referred to SLT. Results 22 patients were seen for full SLT assessment during this period, 13 women, 9 men; mean age 69.5 (range 48- 80). Diagnoses include: AD (32%), FTD behavioural variant (14%), Primary Progressive Aphasia (14%), Non-amnestic MCI (18%), Amnestic MCI (14%), Other neurological disorder (8%). 68% of these patients required ongoing SLT intervention for their cognitive communication difficulties following diagnosis. Conclusion SLTs fulfil an integral role in supporting both the diagnostic and post-diagnostic care pathways of people living with dementia and cognitive impairment attending memory services. SLTs have a unique role and skillset in identifying the specific nature of language difficulties for a person with dementia or cognitive impairment and in reducing the impact of the communication difficulties for the person and for their family members.

scholarly journals Investigating a new tablet-based telerehabilitation app in patients with aphasia: a randomised, controlled, evaluator-blinded, multicentre trial protocol

BMJ Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. e037702
Author(s):  
Arif Sinan Uslu ◽  
Stephan M Gerber ◽  
Nadine Schmidt ◽  
Carina Röthlisberger ◽  
Patric Wyss ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Cognitive Training ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Verbal Communication ◽  
Speech And Language ◽  
Language Therapy ◽  
Speech And Language Therapy ◽  
Language Functions ◽  
Randomised Controlled

IntroductionAphasia is a common language disorder acquired after stroke that reduces the quality of life of affected patients. The impairment is frequently accompanied by a deficit in cognitive functions. The state-of-the-art therapy is speech and language therapy but recent findings highlight positive effects of high-frequency therapy. Telerehabilitation has the potential to enable high-frequency therapy for patients at home. This study investigates the effects of high-frequency telerehabilitation speech and language therapy (teleSLT) on language functions in outpatients with aphasia compared with telerehabilitative cognitive training. We hypothesise that patients training with high-frequency teleSLT will show higher improvement in language functions and quality of life compared with patients with high-frequency tele-rehabilitative cognitive training (teleCT).Methods and analysisThis study is a randomised controlled, evaluator-blinded multicentre superiority trial comparing the outcomes following either high-frequency teleSLT or teleCT. A total of 100 outpatients with aphasia will be recruited and assigned in a 1:1 ratio stratified by trial site and severity of impairment to one of two parallel groups. Both groups will train over a period of 4 weeks for 2 hours per day. Patients in the experimental condition will devote 80% of their training time to teleSLT and the remaining 20% (24 min/day) to teleCT, vice versa for patients in the control condition. The primary outcome measure is the understandability of verbal communication on the Amsterdam Nijmegen Everyday Language Test and secondary outcome measures are intelligibility of the verbal communication, impairment of receptive and expressive language functions, confrontation naming. Other outcomes measures are quality of life and acceptance (usability and subjective experience) of the teleSLT system.Ethics and disseminationThis study is approved by the Ethics Committee Bern (ID 2016-01577). Results will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal.Trial registration numberNCT03228264.

Speech and language therapy in palliative care

2021 ◽  
pp. 231-240
Author(s):  
Tim Luckett ◽  
Katherine L. P. Reid
Keyword(s):  
Palliative Care ◽  
Multidisciplinary Care ◽  
Speech And Language ◽  
Language Therapy ◽  
Care Needs ◽  
Minimal Intervention ◽  
Speech And Language Therapy ◽  
The Core ◽  
Specialist Services ◽  
Palliative Phase

Palliative care is an emerging specialty within the field of speech and language therapy. The discipline is currently under-represented both in specialist services and research. Many patients in the palliative phase suffer problems with swallowing (dysphagia) and communication, the core domains of speech and language therapy practice. This chapter provides an overview of difficulties encountered in these domains by people with life-limiting conditions together with common approaches to assessment and management. Assessment and management should be person-centred, integrated into multidisciplinary care, and seek to maintain function using minimal intervention for maximum gain. More research is needed to inform appropriately integrated, person-centred models of speech and language therapy provision that enable difficulties with communication and swallowing to be addressed proactively alongside other symptoms and care needs. Difficulties in these domains are currently under-identified and undertreated in many cases.

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