Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss (SSHL) is a sudden, unexplained, change in hearing that happens all at once or over a period of a few days and often affects only one ear.
After a stroke, the main focus for the patient, their family, friends, physicians, therapists and other health care professionals is often on their physical aspects. How far can the patient walk? Can the patient still get dressed with the use of just one hand? Can the patient safely swallow food and liquid without coughing or choking? Will the patient need to use oxygen after discharge to home? These are all issues that are visible and obvious.
Tags: Communication, Support, Stroke, Caregiving, Brain Injury
National Deaf History Month is celebrated from March 15 – April 15. It recognizes contributions of deaf and hard of hearing (HoH) people, as well as highlighting the various forms of communication chosen by deaf and HoH individuals – including American Sign Language (ASL). For example – did you know that the football huddle we use today was first started at a college for the deaf in the 1890s so the players could keep their ASL signing hidden from the opposing team?
Tags: Communication, Deaf, Hard of Hearing, Interpreting, ASL Interpreter
Selective mutism is a complex childhood anxiety disorder characterized by a child’s lack of verbal communication in select social environments, such as school. Children with selective mutism possess the ability to speak, but are selective of the settings in which they choose to speak. They will often speak in environments where they feel safe, relaxed, and calm with familiar people such as parents or siblings, but will choose not to speak in environments where they are less comfortable. A common misconception is that selective mutism is a form of autism. Children with selective mutism may demonstrate lack of appropriate social language use that mimics those on the autism spectrum, but selective mutism is not indicative of autism.
Tags: Speech, Language, Communication, Stuttering, Learning, Voice, talking
A cleft is any opening in a normally closed structure. A cleft lip is an opening in the lip, typically the upper lip. These clefts are more commonly unilateral (on one side of the lip) as compared to bilateral (on both sides of the lip). Unilateral clefts occur more frequently on the left side of the mouth. A cleft palate is an opening on the roof of the mouth. Clefts can be found in the hard palate (towards the front of the mouth), soft palate (more towards the back of the mouth) or both.
Tags: Speech, Language, Communication, Voice, talking, Cleft Lip, Cleft palate
Barotrauma is the term used to describe the discomfort or injury caused by increased air pressure during airplane flights (or increased water pressure when scuba diving).
Tags: Audiology, Hearing, Hearing Loss Prevention, "ears", Ear Pain, Ear Anatomy
Hearing loss generally happens gradually over a long period of time. Often, the subtle, and not so subtle, signs of hearing difficulty are more apparent to significant partners than it is to the person with the hearing loss.
Tags: Hearing Aid, Hearing Aids, Hearing, Support, Caregiving, Hearing Loss, "ears"
Parents often wonder what they can do to help their child improve their speech and language skills. Many families seek additional private speech therapy to supplement school-based treatment.
While added speech therapy may be an advantage, it depends on the unique needs of your child. School-based speech therapy and private speech therapy differ in many ways. Before determining if your child would benefit from additional speech and language therapy, it is essential to know the difference between the two.
Tags: Speech, Language, Communication, Teens, Stuttering, Voice, toddler, talking
A concussion is a mild form of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) caused by a bump, blow, or jolt to the head. Concussions can also occur from a fall or a blow to the body that causes the head to move rapidly back and forth.
It is a common opinion that concussions happen mostly to football players. However, they can also occur while playing other contact sports such as soccer, as a result of a vehicular accident, or during a fall.
Tags: Teens, Support, Brain Injury, toddler
Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder caused by damage to the central or peripheral nervous system – or sometimes both – as the result of a stroke or brain injury. People with dysarthria may have trouble with respiration (breathing), phonation (voicing), articulation (speech), prosody (patterns of stress and intonation) and resonance (e.g., nasality).
Tags: Speech, Communication, Stroke, talking
