How Does Speech Therapy Help People with Developmental Disabilities?
Speech therapists use a variety of techniques and activities to assist with issues related to how the mouth, tongue, jaw, and throat all work together to both create speech and perform necessary activities like swallowing and eating. Speech therapy is just one of a variety of therapy programs that residential habilitation can assist your family member in accessing.
Speech Fluency
Speech fluency doesn’t refer to being able to speak a language fluently. Instead, it refers to how speech flows, like when someone has a stutter or other issues with being able to speak smoothly. Everybody has issues with speech fluency at times, such as when speaking in public or when adding fillers like “um” as they speak. But often people with developmental disabilities have much more difficulty with speech fluency and find that speech therapy can help with that.
Articulation Trouble
Another aspect of speech therapy is helping to iron out difficulties with articulation. Speech therapists can help your family member to learn how to form her mouth properly to make correct sounds while speaking. This helps with pronunciation and enunciation. Much of articulation involves proper placement of the different parts of the mouth, like the tongue and the jaw, in order to create the right sounds.
Vocal Control
Vocal control refers to things like voice quality, pitch, and even volume. Trouble regulating vocal volume is a common problem for people who have developmental disabilities, but it’s possible to learn techniques to manage vocal control. Gaining vocal control helps with communication, particularly with new people and in new situations. Breathing exercises, relaxation exercises for vocal cords, and other types of exercises can all help to improve issues with vocal regulation. This also helps to reduce stress when learning other new skills, which is important for overall well-being.
Eating Issues
The same issues that can affect speech, like improper jaw and tongue placement, can also create problems eating. If your family member has trouble with swallowing, eating, or even drooling, speech therapy can help. Exercises that assist with articulation and speech fluency can make eating much easier and safer. This reduces issues with aspiration and can help your family member to take in the calories and nutrition that she needs to be ingesting.
Residential habilitation helps your family member to access a variety of different and necessary therapy programs, including speech therapy, to help with difficulties and with learning new skills.
If you are considering therapy programs in Avon, IN, please call the caring staff at RSI Cares. Serving Greater Indianapolis Area. Call for Immediate Info & Assistance: 317-471-0750.
As a practicing Registered Nurse, Etelka was keenly aware of a void in quality patient care that could be provided in the home. She embarked upon a journey to develop a home health care agency that would exceed all expectations and become a trusted partner to physicians and patients.
A Distinguished Career From Nurse to Director of Nursing to President of Home Services Unlimited
Etelka’s distinguished career followed a logical progression to her position as President of Home Services Unlimited. She graduated as a nurse practitioner with a Bachelor of Nursing (RN) in 1972 from Meshgorya University in the Ukraine, close to where she lived with her family. She married her husband Phil in 1973 and decided in 1977 that they would relocate to the United States to be closer to family and to come to this land of opportunity. With an eagerness to continue her budding career, Etelka sat for and passed her Boards in the U.S. in 1979.
A Love and Talent for Working with the Elderly
Etelka began her nursing career in the U.S. at Colonial Crest, now part of Golden Living, where shewasthe In-service Coordinator, the Director of Training and Education and Director of Nursing, a position she occupied for several years.
With a group of partners, she co-founded Adept Corporation, which operated group homes for the mentally challenged. The business was successful and in 1996, Etelka sold her share to return to her roots, caring for the elderly.
In January of 1997, Etelka opened Home Services Unlimited as a fully licensed business to provide home health care. In her quest to learn to do better for her patients, she had already obtained a Masters in Healthcare Administration (MHA) in May of 1990 from the College of St. Francis. As President of Home Services Unlimited, Inc., Etelka guides the trusted, experienced care model Home Services Unlimited uses to continue providing excellent home health care.
Giving Back to the Community of Indianapolis
Volunteering for community services is a high priority for Etelka. Her memberships include the Indiana Association of Rehabilitation Facilities, Executive Women in Health Care and the Indiana Association for Home and Hospice Care, where she is a member of the Board of Directors.
Etelka has also served on the Board of Directors with Hooverwood Home, a highly regarded geriatric facility, since 1997 and as the President for 2005-2006. Through her community work, she has received several awards and accolades, including the Nora McFarland award in 2002, from the Indiana Association of Home and Hospice Care.
Etelka was honored as a “Health Care Hero” by the Indianapolis Business Journal. The issue can be read online here:
http://mags.ibj.com/activemagazine/welcome/html/ibjhch.html.
After clicking on the link, then click on the image of the issue’s front page. After that, you can browse through the issue or click in a box near the top of your internet browser to adjust the page to 17, which is where Etelka’s article appears.
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