Therapy for Adults

Accent Reduction

Accents reflect the unique characteristics and background of a person. Many people take great pride in their accents. However, some people may have difficulty communicating because of their accent. Services concentrate on the pronunciation, stress, rhythm and intonation of speech.

Accent reduction is not usually targeted at removing an accent. Therapy aims to make it easier for a listener to understand what is being said.

Voice Disorders

A voice disorder is a deviation in voice pitch, loudness, or quality that interferes with a person’s quality of life. Individuals with a voice disorder may sound hoarse, stuffy or nasally. Often structural abnormalities are the cause of such symptoms.

Treatment assists with vocal cord nodules and polyps, vocal cord paralysis, paradoxical vocal fold movement and spasmodic dysphonia.

**Please note that an examination by a licensed and certified Ear-Nose-Throat (ENT) doctor is highly recommended prior to initiation of speech therapy for voice disorders since voice disorders are often a product of several conditions surrounding the vocal chords including ulcers, blisters, pappillomas and cancer.

Neurodegenerative Disorders

Neurodegenerative disorders are characterized by a decline in the brain’s function over time. These disorders can affect many of your body’s activities such as balance, movement and heart function. Many of these diseases also impact speech, swallowing, voice, communication and breathing.

Treatment focuses on management of symptoms and optimization of communication and swallowing.

Neurodegenerative disorders include but are not limited to:

• Alzheimer’s disease
• Dementia
• Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA)
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Parkinson’s disease
• Huntington’s disease

Social/Professional Communication

Professional communication training focuses on the advanced communication skills required in today’s professional and corporate environments. Effective communication in an interview, a meeting with management or in front of an audience can increase your competitive edge.

Areas of Development include:

• Mumbling
• Enunciation
• Network and small talk
• Voice quality (pitch, projection)
• Presentation skills/anxiety
• Fluency of speech (filler words, pauses etc.)
• Concise speech
• Communicating in conflict
• Non-verbal communication/body language
• Assertive communication
• Turn-taking and pragmatics
• Developing and fostering new relationships

Acquired Brain Injury (Store, Neurological, Traumatic Brain Injury)

Acquired Brain Injury or ABI refers to damage to the brain, which occurs after birth and is not related to a congenital or a degenerative disease. These impairments may be temporary or permanent and may cause partial or functional disability. If you have had a brain injury, we can sit down with you to discuss assessment and treatment options depending on your recovery goals. If you received speech therapy for an ABI while in the hospital, we can pick up where your speech therapist left off or start fresh.

Possible areas of communication impacted by an ABI are:

• initiating speech (apraxia)
• word-finding (anomia)
• understanding of language (receptive aphasia)
• fluency of speech (expressive aphasia/neurogenic stuttering)
• clarity of speech (dysarthria)
• reading (alexia/dyslexia)
• writing (agraphia/dysgraphia)
• vocal fatigue/hoarseness/weakness

Voice and Communication Therapy for Transgender/Transsexual Clients

Voice and communication training for male-to-female (MtF) clients and for female-to-male (FtM) clients look at a variety of aspects of communication, including vocal pitch, intonation and resonance, and nonverbal communication.