Article: Mark - Dec 4th, 2012 Newsletter - The Teaching of Talking

Mark - The Teaching of Talking

Questions from our Readers

What do you work on in speech therapy with those who have lost the ability to talk?

Approaches that speech therapists use to address speaking difficulties are as many as the stars above.  And I'm not kidding!  Approaches to therapy are as different as fingerprints; hardly ever the same.  Each speech pathologist has their own way of doing things and there is a great deal of variability within the field today.

Many of the approaches, which have been used, are old and tired; and thank goodness there are the speech gurus who develop new and different approaches to address the problem of speech loss due to aphasia, head injury or developmental delays in children.  There are many new and exciting approaches, which are showing great promise.  

In my previous writings I have commented that most caregivers and clients/patients know whether speech therapy is working, and I have encouraged many who are in doubt to have conversations with their therapist or seek other expert speech pathologists for second or third opinions. 

The Teaching of Talking Method fits right in with the newest concepts in speech therapy today for the treatment of speech and language difficulties of those with aphasia, head injury and developmental delays.  The concept deals with neuro-plasticity which is the brain's ability to reorganize itself and allow the nerve cells to compensate for an injury and disease and to adjust their activities in response to new situations or to changes in their environment.  It simply means that the brain can continue to improve function with regular exercise and practice and that it may take hours per day to keep the process of learning occurring, even with a damaged brain.  Our method would also concur with Constraint Induced Speech Therapy which forbids alternate methods of communication such as writing, signing, gesturing and other means of communication and forces the concentration of therapy on speaking, and dealing with real life speaking situations and what must be said in the moment during daily activities of living.  Neuro-plasticity and Constraint Induced Speech Therapy are the Foundational Principles of The Teaching of Talking Method, and forcing ....

See the full article Dec 4th, 2012 Newsletter - The Teaching of Talking.