The speech language pathologists at McLaren spend approximately 60% of their time with patients whose speech has been affected due to a stroke. When this happens a speech language pathologist is a link to a person's early childhood. Speech is based on patterning or watching others speak, listening to names of objects and people, repeated many times, and finally trying out a word ourselves. What to us is incomprehensible "babyspeak" is really trying out and learning how sounds are made and finding our voice. For many stroke patients their episode has disrupted the connections between recognition and speech. It sounds simple but translating the visual perception into distinct sounds is very challenging. Speech language pathologists work on tapping the patient's memory of long-time associations by working on constructing sounds that lead to object recognition and then speech.

Speech language pathologists also work with patients who have the following conditions:

• Brain injury that has impaired speech function
• Neurological disorders such as early Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, severe migraine, and more
• Tourette's Syndrome
• An inability to recognize objects and associate them with speech
• Stuttering
• Attention deficit disorder
• Autism
• Cleft palate
• Hearing disorders or deafness
• Swallowing disorders
• Learning to speak through a stoma following laryngectomy (removal of the larynx)
• A speech language pathologist is a licensed allied health professional who holds a master's degree from an accredited college or university.

For more information on McLaren facilities that offer speech language pathology services and our staff Click Here