Aphasia
Aphasia is a neurological disorder caused by damage to the portions of the brain that are responsible for language. There are many types and presentations of Aphasia, which can include difficulty expressing oneself when speaking, trouble understanding, and difficulty with reading and writing. These can occur together or in isolation.

What to expect….
Your Speech Pathologist will complete an examination of your swallow whilst in clinic. An assessment will include asking you to eat and drink different types of fluids and food consistencies. They may palpate (using hands to feel the movement of your swallow) your swallow, use cervical auscultation (use of a stethoscope to listen) and some sometimes check your SpO2 (blood oxygen) levels as part of the comprehensive swallow assessment. 

Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder resulting from neurolgoical injury which affects the precision of your articulation. In other words, your speech and sounds can sound distorted and often slurred.  As part of your treatment, speech subsystems such as respiration, phonation, prosody, resonance and articulation will be targeted to improve the intelligibility and ‘naturalness’ of your speech. We will consider what the perceptual, speech and voice characterises are during assessment and what potential medical diagnosis is suggested by these characteristics.