Speech Therapy
People with communication disorders are young, old and in-between. Their problems may have existed from birth or resulted from an illness, accident or disease. At Cherokee Regional Medical Center, our speech clinician has a Master's Degree in Speech Pathology. She has been practicing for over 20 years in the areas of infant and early language development, play and thinking skills, in the school setting and in language and speech rehabilitation in the hospital setting.

People who have had strokes or trauma to the brain are helped to regain lost language and speech skills. They are assisted and taught to understand directions and conversation, learn to ask and answer questions, convey ideas and to simply interact verbally with other people. If the speech is difficult to understand due to muscle weakness in the mouth, the clinician creates an exercise program for the mouth. Swallowing difficulties can be a problem in any age group and the clinician assists with safe oral intake of food and liquids supporting hydration and nourishment.

Two other areas that can interfere with communication are stuttering and voice problems. Regaining fluency or retraining how to speak with a clear voice are important areas for the speech pathologist to help people better communicate.