Your mom’s spent all of her life speaking, so why would she need speech therapy now? Many things can trigger the need for speech therapy, and the services don’t have to relate to speech. It can be working on strengthening the muscles of the throat while swallowing. A stroke, dementia, cancer, or injury to the throat can all impact your mom’s throat and speech function.
Speech therapy at home is also an option. It is performed by speech-language pathologists (SLPs), which are often referred to as speech therapists. There are many benefits of doing speech therapy exercises at home. More practice usually means faster improvement, and therapy with software at home or with a volunteer has been shown to be effective.
How do you help her prepare for her first appointment? It helps to know what to expect.
What Happens During the First Appointment?
Much of this visit is spent getting to know each other. Your mom’s speech therapist will look at her medical history, ask some questions, and generally have a conversation with her. If you also attend, you can ask questions and give input, too.
You’ll go over the goals of speech therapy and better understand what the possible outcome is and how long it might take. Once this is over, you’ll work on a treatment plan and schedule regular visits with the speech therapist.
Make sure your mom is able to ask any questions she has. If you know of a question that she doesn’t ask, speak up and ask for her.
Continuing Therapy Sessions
After the initial consultation, your mom will start working with her speech therapist regularly. It might be once a week or multiple days per week. Much of this comes down to what the treatment plan lists and how much help your mom needs.
During a therapy session, your mom will work on exercises to improve speech or throat muscle control. Watch these sessions as there will be exercises you can help your mom with each day. The more time she invests in these exercises, the better the chances of her speech therapy sessions doing everything she wants.
She may be frustrated from time to time, but encourage her to stick with it. It’s hard at first, but it gets easier. Keep working on the exercises and do them with her. Your mom may feel less embarrassed to do them if you’re joining in. It goes from being a solo activity to a family activity that she can laugh about.
Your mom’s doctor is the first person to talk to about your mom’s changing health. You’ll get a full picture of what to expect, whether she can recover, or if she’ll be dealing with decreasing speech and swallowing skills for the rest of her life.
Once you have that information, talk to a speech therapy office or speech therapy at home provider to make an appointment for the initial assessment. Make sure you’re present for the initial assessment and ask if you or another caregiver should be available for the others or not. Then, you can arrange your schedule to match what’s recommended.