We take eating and drinking for granted until something goes wrong. Swallowing difficulties are known as dysphagia. This can affect the oral stage (so chewing and keeping things held within your mouth) and the pharyngeal stage (when the food passes through the throat and into the stomach). An assessment of swallowing will enable the specialist speech and language therapist to identify which stage or stages of the swallowing process is/are causing difficulties and whether there are other factors that are contributing to your swallowing disorder. In addition the speech and language therapist will be able to advise you as to the risk of aspiration ( the risk of food and drinks going down the wrong way i.e. into the lungs rather than the stomach). Through this assessment the speech and language therapist may be able to advise you on how to reduce this risk and to implement a speech and language therapy treatment/therapy programme to assist you in swallowing safely.
The Specialist Speech Therapy practice uses a number of different tools and techniques in an attempt to compensate for and rehabilitate swallowing problems. For example:
Contact us today for an assessment of eating, drinking and swallowing problems in Birmingham, Solihull and across the Wrts Midlands. We are a team of private speech and language therapists with a wide range of specialisms – we can find the right therapist to meet your individual needs.
The Specialist Speech Therapy practice uses a number of different tools and techniques in an attempt to compensate for and rehabilitate swallowing problems. For example:
- using different head positions
- trialling different swallowing techniques
- introducing exercises to target areas of difficulty highlighted by the comprehensive assessment
- using different tastes and temperatures of food or drinks
- trialling different sizes of sips or spoonfuls
- using tools such as TalkTools or Facial flex
Contact us today for an assessment of eating, drinking and swallowing problems in Birmingham, Solihull and across the Wrts Midlands. We are a team of private speech and language therapists with a wide range of specialisms – we can find the right therapist to meet your individual needs.