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The Center for Medical Rehabilitation at Northwest Hospital offers a variety of speech language services to meet the needs of our patients and their families. Our services are performed by licensed speech language pathologists.

Vocal Image/Voice Disorders
Vocal image is how others perceive the pitch, loudness, quality and vocal variety in your voice. Good vocal quality is essential for effective communication of thoughts and ideas. Individual consultations focus on assessing these aspects of voice and designing treatment goals to achieve and maintain a healthy speaking voice.

We offer treatment for dysphonia, hoarsness, raspiness or partial voice loss that can make it difficult to speak loudly or softly enough.

Communication Disorders
Many of us take for granted such everyday tasks such as stating our name, understanding the news, writing a letter, or remembering an appointment. When injury or illness disrupts these abilities, frustration and isolation can follow. Impairments may result from stroke, tumors, brain injury, dementia, or other diseases and may include:

• Aphasia: Problems speaking, understanding, reading, writing, telling time and/or using numbers.
• Cognitive-Communication Disorders: Problems of memory, reasoning, problem solving, attention to tasks and awareness of surroundings.
• Dysarthria: weakness or incoordination of the speech muscles that makes speech difficult to understand.
• Apraxia: difficulty planning muscle movements for speech production resulting in slow labored speech.

Speech language pathologists specialize in providing comprehensive evaluations and individualized treatments for these disorders allowing clients to optimize their communication skills and return to a fulfilling lives.

Swallowing Disorders (Dysphagia)
Difficulty swallowing is a common problem and can be caused by numerous medical conditions. Swallowing problems can lead to dehydration, malnutrition, pneumonia, and the need for tube feeding or other nutritional alternatives. Clinical and Videofluoroscopic swallow evaluations determine what can be safely swallowed using compensatory strategies and modifying food textures as needed.