Speech Therapy

What Is Speech Therapy

Speech Therapy can include a variety of services directed by a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP). These services include the assessment, diagnosis, and/or treatment of speech, language, social communication, cognitive-communication, voice, and swallowing disorders in children and adults.

Who can benefit from Speech Therapy?

As outlined by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), individuals with any of the following problems may benefit from Speech Therapy:

  • Speech disorder- This can be when a person has difficulty producing speech sounds correctly or fluently.
  • Language disorder- This can be when a person has trouble understanding others (receptive language), or expressing thoughts, ideas, and/or feelings (expressive language).
  • Social communication disorder- This can occur when a person has trouble with the social use of verbal and nonverbal communication. An individual with a social communication disorder may have trouble appropriately greeting others, asking questions, making appropriate comments, adjusting communication to fit their listener/setting/situation, and/or following general social rules for communication.
  • Cognitive-communication disorder- This can be when an individual has trouble with organizing thoughts, maintaining attention to a task/conversation, recalling information, planning for completion of tasks, and/or problem-solving.
  • Voice disorder- This can be when there is a change or dysfunction in voice pitch, loudness, and/or quality.
  • Swallowing disorder- This is also called dysphagia and includes feeding and swallowing difficulties

    • What services do we provide?

      At MCHC we provide Speech Therapy services for both children and adults. For children we are able to provide services/support for speech, language, social communication, and cognitive-communication disorders. For adults we are able to provide services/support for speech, language, social communication, cognitive-communication, voice, and swallowing disorders

    Who is our Speech Therapist

    My name is Seth Fitzgerald. I graduated in 2011 from Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri with a Master’s Degree in Communication Disorders. I have been working as a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) since 2011. Over the past several years I have had the opportunity to serve a variety of people of varying ages and with varying disorders. As for adults, I have had the pleasure of serving people on an inpatient and outpatient basis in both the hospital and nursing home settings. Most of my experience has been in serving adults, although along the way I have had the opportunity to provide Speech Therapy services for preschool to school-aged children and continue to do so. My experience working with children started during my time as a graduate student in the university clinic, then additionally at the local preschool near the university, and it continued in the outpatient setting following the completion of my degree.

    Seth Fitzgerald, MA CCC-SLP, Speech Language Pathologist

    Seth Fitzgerald, MA CCC-SPL

    Speech Language Pathologist