PROMPT and Traditional Speech Therapy to Facilitate or Enhance Speech Production

Speech therapy addresses any number of issues that create a negative impact on speech production. A person may be unable to produce speech at all, or produce speech that is poorly understood by even familiar listeners. Speech production/intelligibility may be impacted by such conditions as dyspraxia, also referred to as Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS), which is the reduced ability of the brain to reliably plan and execute production of sounds, syllables, and words; and dysarthria, or slow, slurred speech. Severity of any speech impairment depends upon the degree of damage, and location within the brain or nervous system. Speech impairment may be developmental (from birth), or acquired due to a stroke, neurodegenerative disease, traumatic brain injury (TBI), etc. Speech production may also be impacted by structural issues, for instance, an enlarged tongue, cleft palate, etc. No matter the source of the speech impairment, a speech defect will generally call attention to itself. A comprehensive assessment of speech is conducted to determine the stating point for speech therapy. Not being understood by others may be highly frustrating, and the root cause of other maladaptive behaviors. While addressing speech issues, it is of utmost importance to provide the person with a means of communicating basic wants, needs, concerns, etc., which directs us toward the domain of Expressive Language therapy.