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speech therapy

Definition of speech therapy

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1912, in the meaning defined above

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“Speech therapy.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/speech%20therapy. Accessed 23 Jan. 2025.

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What Is Speech Therapy?

Speech therapy is the assessment and treatment of communication problems and speech disorders. It is performed by speech-language pathologists (SLPs), which are often referred to as speech therapists.

Speech therapy techniques are used to improve communication. These include articulation therapy, language intervention activities, and others depending on the type of speech or language disorder .

Speech therapy may be needed for speech disorders that develop in childhood or speech impairments in adults caused by an injury or illness, such as stroke or brain injury .

Why do you need speech therapy?

There are several speech and language disorders that can be treated with speech therapy.

• Articulation disorders. An articulation disorder is the inability to properly form certain word sounds. A child with this speech disorder may drop, swap, distort, or add word sounds. An example of distorting a word would be saying “thith” instead of “this”.
• Fluency disorders. A fluency disorder affects the flow, speed, and rhythm of speech. Stuttering and cluttering are fluency disorders. A person with stuttering has trouble getting out a sound and may have speech that is blocked or interrupted, or may repeat part of all of a word. A person with cluttering often speaks very fast and merges words together.
• Resonance disorders. A resonance disorder occurs when a blockage or obstruction of regular airflow in the nasal or oral cavities alters the vibrations responsible for voice quality. It can also happen if the velopharyngeal valve doesn’t close properly. Resonance disorders are often associated with cleft palate , neurological disorders, and swollen tonsils .
• Receptive disorders. A person with receptive language disorder has trouble understanding and processing what others say. This can cause you to seem uninterested when someone is speaking, have trouble following directions, or have a limited vocabulary. Other language disorders, autism , hearing loss , and a head injury can lead to a receptive language disorder.
• Expressive disorders. Expressive language disorder is difficulty conveying or expressing information. If you have an expressive disorder , you may have trouble forming accurate sentences, such as using incorrect verb tense. It’s associated with developmental impairments, such as Down syndrome and hearing loss. It can also result from head trauma or a medical condition.
• Cognitive-communication disorders. Difficulty communicating because of an injury to the part of the brain that controls your ability to think is referred to as cognitive-communication disorder. It can result in memory issues , problem solving, and difficulty speaking , or listening. It can be caused by biological problems, such abnormal brain development, certain neurological conditions, a brain injury, or stroke.
• Aphasia. This is an acquired communication disorder that affects a person’s ability to speak and understand others. It also often affects a person’s ability to read and write. Stroke is the most common cause of aphasia, though other brain disorders can also cause it.
• Dysarthria. This condition is characterized by slow or slurred speech due to a weakness or inability to control the muscles used for speech. It’s most commonly caused by nervous system disorders and conditions that cause facial paralysis or throat and tongue weakness, such as multiple sclerosis (MS) , amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) , and stroke.

What happens during speech therapy?

Speech therapy usually begins with an assessment by an SLP who will identify the type of communication disorder and the best way to treat it.

Speech therapy for children

For your child, speech therapy may take place in a classroom or small group, or one-on-one, depending on the speech disorder. Speech therapy exercises and activities vary depending on your child’s disorder, age, and needs. During speech therapy for children, the SLP may:

• interact through talking and playing, and using books, pictures other objects as part of language intervention to help stimulate language development
• model correct sounds and syllables for a child during age-appropriate play to teach the child how to make certain sounds
• provide strategies and homework for the child and parent or caregiver on how to do speech therapy at home

Speech therapy for adults

Speech therapy for adults also begins with assessment to determine your needs and the best treatment. Speech therapy exercises for adults can help you with speech, language, and cognitive communication.

Therapy may also include retraining of swallowing function if an injury or medical condition, such as Parkinson’s disease or oral cancer has caused swallowing difficulties .

Exercises may involve:

• problem solving, memory, and organization, and other activities geared at improving cognitive communication
• conversational tactics to improve social communication
• breathing exercises for resonance
• exercises to strengthen oral muscles

There are many resources available if you’re looking to try speech therapy exercises at home, including:

• speech therapy apps
• language development games and toys, such as flip cards and flash cards

How long do you need speech therapy?

The amount of time a person needs speech therapy depends on a few factors, including:

• type and severity of the speech disorder
• frequency of therapy
• underlying medical condition
• treatment of an underlying medical condition

Some speech disorders begin in childhood and improve with age, while others continue into adulthood and require long-term therapy and maintenance.

A communication disorder caused by a stroke or other medical condition may improve as with treatment and as the condition improves.

How successful is speech therapy?

The success rate of speech therapy varies between the disorder being treated and age groups. When you start speech therapy can also have an impact on the outcome.

Speech therapy for young children has been shown to be most successful when started early and practiced at home with the involvement of a parent or caregiver.

The bottom line

Speech therapy can treat a broad range of speech and language delays and disorders in children and adults. With early intervention, speech therapy can improve communication and boost self-confidence.

How we reviewed this article:

• Aphasia FAQs. (n.d.). https://www.aphasia.org/aphasia-faqs/
• Black LI, et al. (2015). Communication disorders and use of intervention services among children aged 3–17 years: United States, 2012. https://www.aphasia.org/aphasia-faqs/
• Expressive language disorder. (2016). https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/expressive-language-disorder
• Mayo Clinic Staff. (2018). Dysarthria. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/dysarthria/symptoms-causes/syc-20371994
• McLaughlin MR. (2011). Speech and language delay in children. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6897/4c7db002182e5dbf00270b97eefd474059a7.pdf
• Roberts MY, et al. (2011). The effectiveness of parent-implemented language interventions: A meta-analysis. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1044/1058-0360(2011/10-0055)
• Speech sound disorders-articulation and phonology. (n.d.). https://www.asha.org/Practice-Portal/Clinical-Topics/Articulation-and-Phonology/
• Stuttering. (2017). https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/stuttering

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Meaning of speech therapy in English

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• accommodation
• alliterative
• glottal stop
• labiodental
• mispronounce
• postalveolar
• postconsonantal
• retroflexion
• the International Phonetic Alphabet
• unpronounceable
• unrepeatable

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What is Speech Therapy?

August 12, 2022

Many individuals will have experience with speech therapy at some point in their life. But what is speech therapy, exactly? Speech therapy is a specialized treatment performed by a speech-language pathologist that helps individuals of all ages improve their speech and communication.

Speech therapy prevents, assesses, and treats communication problems, delays, and disorders. It is performed by a communication specialist called a speech-language pathologist (also referred to as a speech pathologist, speech therapist, or SLP).

Speech therapy aims to improve an individual’s speech and/or language skills and treat developmental delays, swallowing disorders, fluency disorders, voice and resonance disorders, and more.

Who Needs Speech Therapy?

Speech therapists help a wide variety of clients from birth to old age. Individuals who might benefit from speech therapy include the following.

• Infants. Speech therapy helps infants and babies with feeding, speech development, and early communication skills.
• Toddlers and Preschoolers. Toddlers and preschoolers receive speech therapy to treat speech delays and disorders and enhance language development (identifying body parts, following simple directions, etc.).
• Children and Adolescents. Speech therapy can help children with a variety of disorders, including speech sound disorders, language delays, stuttering, voice disorders, auditory processing, verbal expression, and much more.
• Adults. Adults can be treated in therapy for the same delays and disorders as those seen in adolescents, as well as for aphasia, dysarthria, memory, cognition, accent reduction, swallowing, and gender-affirming voice therapy.
• Older individuals. Speech therapy can be very beneficial for older individuals. Therapy may work on improving functional communication skills, safe swallowing techniques, and memory and problem-solving skills.

What Does Speech Therapy Do?

A speech-language pathologist treats a wide range of communication delays and disorders. They provide therapy in the areas of articulation, language, fluency, resonance, cognition, voice, swallowing, dysarthria, auditory rehab, and more.

1. Articulation

A speech sound disorder (also known as an articulation disorder) is the inability to correctly produce speech sounds (called phonemes). These disorders are most common in children and may include an omission, substitution, distortion, or addition of sounds when speaking, often making the child difficult to understand.

• Omissions. Leaving out a sound in a word. (Example: Saying “unny” for “bunny” or “ar” for “car.”) .
• Substitutions. When a sound is said in place of another. (Example: A child has a “lisp” and says “thun” for “sun” or when a child substitutes a W for an R and says “wabbit” for “rabbit.”)
• Distortions. A non-typical sound is said in place of the correct sound in a word. (Example: A child has a lateral lisp where the air escapes out the side of the teeth when saying the “S” sound, making it sound “slushy” and hard to understand.)
• Additions. A sound is added to a word, like extra vowels or an extra consonant. (Example: Saying “puhlay” for “play.”)

2. Language

A language disorder is when a person has difficulty understanding written or spoken language or expressing their wants and needs to others. People with a language disorder may have an expressive language disorder, receptive language disorder, or both.

• Expressive Language. Individuals with an expressive language disorder have difficulty communicating their wants and needs to others through speech, writing, or gestures. Individuals with an expressive language disorder may not produce grammatically correct sentences, have a limited vocabulary, and may speak in short phrases instead of full sentences.
• Receptive Language. A receptive language disorder causes difficulty understanding or processing language. Individuals with a receptive language disorder may have difficulty following directions, and answering questions.

Fluency disorders interrupt the normal rate, rhythm, and speed of speech. Rather than speaking in a smooth, consistent rate of speech, individuals with a fluency disorder will have repetitions, prolongations, and blocks when they speak. They may also experience tension when they speak and have secondary behaviors (like eye blinking or nodding their head) when communicating.

Fluency disorders are divided into two categories: stuttering and cluttering.

• Stuttering. Stuttering is the most common type of disfluency. It is characterized by repetitions of sounds, syllables, words, and phrases, blocks in the flow of speech, and sound prolongations.
• Cluttering. Unlike stuttering, cluttering is a fluency disorder where the individual talks at a fast rate and often combines words or phrases together, making the speech difficult to understand. Cluttered speech is often filled with abnormal pauses, deletion of syllables, abrupt topic changes, and omission of word endings.

4. Resonance

Resonance disorders occur when there is too much or too little sound energy through the nasal and/or oral cavities. This is often caused by neurological disorders, cleft palate, and other structural conditions like enlarged tonsils. Resonance disorders can be broken down into the following four categories.

• Hypernasality . Hypernasality occurs when there is too much sound energy in the nasal cavity (nose) when speaking. A person with hypernasality may sound like they are talking through their nose.
• Hyponasality. Hyponasalaity occurs when there is not enough sound energy resonating in the nasal cavity (nose) when speaking. A person with hyponasality will sound like they are speaking with a severely stuffed nose.
• Cul-de-sac resonance. A person with cul-de-sac resonance has speech that resonates in their throat, nose, or mouth but it is unable to escape due to an obstruction. They may sound like they are mumbling when speaking or like the sound is muffled in their throat or nose.
• Mixed resonance. This type of resonance disorder occurs when one or more of the previous types of disorders are present at the same time during speech.

Voice therapy is used to improve the quality of a person’s voice and provide treatment for conditions such as vocal fold nodules, polyps, or cysts. It can also be used to improve the speech of someone with spasmodic dysphonia, tremor, and vocal fold paralysis.

Voice therapy aims to improve phonation quality, pitch, and loudness, and helps decrease harmful vocal behavior.

6. Cognition

Speech therapy can assist individuals with acquired cognition deficits. These may occur following a stroke, brain damage, tumor, or neurological damage. Damage to the brain can greatly affect a person’s ability to communicate, and speech therapy provides help in the following areas. Additionally, some individuals may experience difficulties or deficits in these areas requiring speech therapy.

• Attention. Attention is the ability to focus on a single task or multiple tasks for a period of time. Difficulties with attention are common following brain injuries. Speech therapy can assist the individual in improving their attention.
• Memory. Many individuals may experience decline in their short- and long-term memory, and speech therapy can help provide assistance to the individual to manage their memory loss.
• Problem solving. Problem solving involves identifying a problem, thinking of various solutions, and implementing the best solution(s) to the problem.
• Executive functioning. Executive functioning refers to a set of skills that include flexible thinking, organization, planning, time management, working memory, and self-control.

7. Feeding and Swallowing

Speech therapists are swallowing specialists and provide therapy for a number of feeding and swallowing conditions and disorders. They work with infants, children, adults, and older individuals to ensure the safe transition of food through all four stages of swallowing.

9. Auditory Habilitation/Rehabilitation

Auditory habilitation/rehabilitation helps individuals with hearing loss improve their ability to communicate with others. It can also assist children and adolescents with dyslexia, autism, and other auditory processing disorders and deficits.

A speech therapist works with a team of specialists to improve speech, language, and hearing skills through a variety of devices and materials.

10. Other Services

In addition to these areas of expertise, speech therapy can also provide elective services including, but not limited to the following.

• Accent modification. Whether a person wants to decrease the severity of their accent or master an accent for acting or other purposes, speech therapy can help train a client on the characteristics of specific accents and dialects.
• Gender-affirming therapy. Speech therapy can help an individual train their voice and nonverbal communication to best match their authentic self.
• Professional communication skills. Speech therapists are experts in communication, and they can help improve public speaking skills and help manage anxiety when speaking to large groups.

Where Does Speech Therapy Take Place?

Speech therapy can be done in many locations based on a client’s needs. These locations may include:

• Private and public schools
• Private practice
• Skilled nursing facilities
• Inpatient rehabilitation facilities
• Long-term care facilities
• Telepractice or virtually

Speech therapy can also be provided within a client’s home for infants and toddlers receiving early intervention services or for older people with limited mobility.

How Long Does Speech Therapy Take?

There is no set time limit for speech therapy as therapy duration will be different for each person. While some children in therapy working on fixing their lisp (correctly saying the S sound) will take 1-2 years, other children with a severe form of childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) will need therapy for many, many years.

Prognosis and how long someone will be receiving speech therapy services is dependent on a number of factors including, but not limited to:

• Patient age
• Type of disorder
• Severity of the disorder
• Frequency and duration of speech therapy
• Family support and assistance with at-home therapy “homework”
• Prognosis of any medical conditions contributing to the speech or language disorder

Does Speech Therapy Work?

Speech therapy is proven to be very successful at improving speech and communication in a variety of individuals.

Keep in mind that the progress and success of speech therapy vary from person to person. The more consistent the therapy, the higher likelihood of success. In addition to consistency, the earlier therapy is started (especially in children with delays), the better the prognosis.

Speech Therapy

Now that you know the ins and outs about what is speech therapy, you’re better able to navigate yours or your loved one’s speech therapy.

Looking for more information about speech therapy? Check out these other posts from The Speech Guide:

What is a Speech Pathologist, and What Do They Do?

How to become a speech pathologist.

Please reach out to a speech therapist if you are concerned about your or your loved one’s speech or communication. You can contact The Speech Guide through our contact page , or on social media @thespeechguide .

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It made sense to me when you pointed out that there will be a higher likelihood of success when speech therapy is done consistently. My four-year-old son seems to have speech problems because he cannot say words clearly, and he stutters a lot. I do not want his speech problems to become a bigger problem when he starts studying, so I will find a reliable speech pathologist who can help him in the best possible way.

I cam across a similar topic on If your child distorting a word and would be saying “thith” instead of “this”, or often speaks very fast and merges words together, or has any difficulty conveying or expressing information- then you need to do Speech Therapy at home.

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In brief: what is speech therapy.

Created: August 12, 2020 ; Next update: 2024.

Speech therapy can help people who have difficulty speaking to communicate better and to break down the barriers that result from speech impediments. The goals of speech therapy include improving pronunciation, strengthening the muscles used in speech, and learning to speak correctly.

Speech therapy can be used for a lot of different speech problems and disorders, from smaller problems like a hoarse voice up to partial loss of speech due to brain damage. Depending on the type of disorder, other medical or psychological treatments may be used as well.

• What kinds of disorders can speech therapy treat?

Speech therapy can be used to treat language disorders, speech disorders and swallowing problems.

Language disorders

A childhood language disorder can affect the child’s ability to learn to speak, to name objects and build complete sentences. Although the causes of these disorders are often not clear, the main known risk factors include hearing problems , general developmental problems and disorders affecting the development of the brain.

Language disorders in adults are almost always the result of brain injury or disease. People who have had a stroke , for example, often have trouble forming sentences or remembering words. That type of disorder is called aphasia.

Speech disorders

People with speech disorders have difficulty producing the sounds of speech, saying words clearly or talking fluently.

Children often have trouble with pronunciation, and may have a lisp or swap certain sounds for others. Speech disorders may be the result of developmental disorders, but psychological factors might also play a role. Adults with neurological diseases sometimes have speech disorders too, often making it hard to understand them.

Another group of speech disorders, known as fluency disorders, involve problems with the flow or evenness of speech. People with this sort of disorder may stutter or “clutter,” for example. When people stutter, there are often silent pauses in their speech, or they repeat or lengthen certain sounds or syllables. Cluttering is abnormally fast speech that makes the pronunciation imprecise or leaves out sounds or parts of words.

Voice disorders (dysphonia)

A voice disorder is a persistent change in someone’s voice. They might sound hoarse, strained, raspy or nearly silent. Often the voice is somewhat weak – in other words, it cracks easily or the person is not able to speak loudly. Voice disorders may arise from speaking too much or too loudly, from using the wrong breathing technique, or from problems with the voice box (larynx) like vocal nodules . Psychological causes like depression or a reaction to a distressing event can change a person’s voice too.

Trouble swallowing

In people with swallowing problems, the movements of the muscles involved in swallowing are affected. This leads to problems transporting food through the mouth and throat. The cause is often a disease or disorder of the nervous system, such as Parkinson’s disease , multiple sclerosis, dementia , an infection like Lyme disease or tetanus, or a head injury. If food gets into the lungs because of a swallowing disorder, it can lead to life-threatening complications.

What treatments are used in speech therapy?

There are various speech therapy techniques for each of the areas described above – the ones that are considered depend on the particular disorder. A long series of treatment sessions is typically needed, with each lasting 30 to 60 minutes. They may take place in a group or one-on-one.

The treatment approaches used in speech therapy include:

• Perception exercises, for example to differentiate between individual sounds and syllables
• Exercises to produce certain sounds and improve the fluency of speech
• Exercises to improve breathing, swallowing and the voice
• Help with communication using things like sign language, communication boards and computer-assisted speech
• Advice for people who need speech therapy, their parents and other loved ones
• Support in implementing these measures in everyday life

For the treatment to help over the long term, it’s often important to also regularly practice the techniques at home.

• Where is speech therapy offered?

Speech therapy is offered at the following facilities:

• Speech therapy practices
• Rehabilitative care centers
• Special needs schools
• Children's day care facilities specializing in speech therapy

Besides speech therapists, there are a number of other specialists who also use similar methods. These include breathing, speech and voice coaches.

• Do statutory health insurers cover the costs of speech therapy?

Note: The procedures and requirements for applying for and receiving speech therapy may vary according to your country. This information describes the current situation in Germany.

To have outpatient treatment at a speech therapy practice, you need a prescription from a doctor. An initial prescription will generally include up to 10 treatments, each typically lasting 30 to 60 minutes. Appointments are usually offered one to three times per week.

For the medical conditions listed above, prescribed speech therapy is often covered by statutory health insurers (apart from a fixed amount that you have to pay yourself, known as a copayment). The copayment does not have to be paid when getting a treatment that has been prescribed for children. If speech therapy is given as a part of rehabilitative care, an accident insurer or pension fund will cover the costs.

The copayment that you have to pay for yourself is 10 euros per prescription plus 10% of the treatment costs. If each treatment costs 55 euros, for example, for ten treatments you would have to pay 65 euros (the basic fee of 10 euros per prescription plus 10 x 5.50 euros).

Some speech therapists may offer certain treatments without a prescription. You then have to pay for all of the costs yourself. In Germany, these are known as individual health care services (individuelle Gesundheitsleistungen, or IGeL for short).

The German Federal Association of Speech Therapists (DBL) has a search function for speech therapists on their website (in German).

• Bode H, Schröder H, Waltersbacher A (Ed). Heilmittel-Report 2008. Ergotherapie, Logopädie, Physiotherapie: Eine Bestandsaufnahme. Stuttgart: Schattauer; 2008.
• Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sprachheilpädagogik (DGS). Ausbildung in der Sprachheilpädagogik .
• Deutscher Bundesverband für akademische Sprachtherapie und Logopädie (dbs). Der Verband [ dbs homepage ]. 2020.
• Deutscher Bundesverband für Logopädie (dbl). Logopädie . 2020.
• Gemeinsamer Bundesausschuss (G-BA). Richtlinie über die Verordnung von Heilmitteln in der vertragsärztlichen Versorgung (Heilmittel-Richtlinie/HeilM-RL) . July 1, 2020.
• Verband der Ersatzkassen (vdek). Rahmenvertrag zwischen LOGO Deutschland und den Ersatzkassen über die Versorgung mit Leistungen der Stimm-, Sprech- und Sprachtherapie. Anlage 1: Leistungsbeschreibung . June 1, 2017.

IQWiG health information is written with the aim of helping people understand the advantages and disadvantages of the main treatment options and health care services.

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Our information is based on the results of good-quality studies. It is written by a team of health care professionals, scientists and editors, and reviewed by external experts. You can find a detailed description of how our health information is produced and updated in our methods.

• Cite this Page InformedHealth.org [Internet]. Cologne, Germany: Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG); 2006-. In brief: What is speech therapy? 2020 Aug 12.

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