Speech therapists work with a wide variety of disorders

BULLHEAD CITY — It’s something that doesn’t always seem apparent, but speech pathologists have helped many people and will continue to help even more. “In speech pathology, we can diagnose communication, speech, language and swallowing disorders,” said Hannah Abbott, a speech pathologist at The Legacy Rehab and Care Center. “From birth to the end stages of life, it’s helping of all ages learn how to improve their speech, language, communication and swallowing skills.” “Speech pathologist works with a variety of disorders and populations depending on what route they go,” said Abbott. “For example, they can go through pediatrics and work with schools or go through the medical field. They can also work with mothers who have newborns and teach their families the baby’s communication signals.” Abbott herself had to see a speech pathologist after sustaining a mild traumatic brain injury, which is one reason she chose her career path. “I went into therapy to help with time management skills and executive functions,” said Abbott. “My speech therapist’s compassion for me, and how she helped me meet my goals to get back into school full time, inspired me to do the same thing for other people.” According to the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) in 2016, about one in 12 (7.7 percent) children ages 3-17 years old in the United States had a disorder related to voice, speech, language or swallowing. “In the Colorado River Union High School District, 59 out of the 220 special needs students are in speech therapy,” said Geoff Tubbs, director of special services for CRUSHD. “In the elementary district we have 232 students that require speech therapy and that includes pre-school students.” According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), about 40 million Americans have a communication disorder. Abbott said that her […]

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