Difficulties in the development of speech, language, and swallowing abilities may interfere with cognitive, social, and academic development. Speech-language pathologists at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh are experts in evaluating and treating children with a wide variety of communication and swallowing disorders. In addition to providing quality care, speech-language pathologists are involved in professional education and clinical research.
The department provides a wide range of services, including both outpatient and inpatient evaluations and treatment, as well as specialty assessment services and clinics. Department clinicians are also closely integrated with many other departments in the hospital, including Audiology, Otolaryngology (ENT), The Cleft-Craniofacial Center, The Cerebral Palsy and Related Disorders Program, and more.
Services provided by the Department of Speech-Language Pathology include:
Assistive and Augmentative Communication - AAC
Augmentative and alternative communication allows people to utilize a variety of communication modalities and/or access methods (e.g., direct selection, eye gaze, switches) to improve their daily living and communication with peers.
Acquired Brain Injury/Traumatic Brain Injury - ABI/TBI
Brain injuries may impact attention, concentration, memory, problem-solving skills, organizational skills, word fluency, and new learning. Additionally, speech, language, cognition, and swallowing may be impacted.
Apraxia of Speech - AOS/CAS
Childhood apraxia of speech is a motor speech disorder characterized by a child having difficulty sending a message from their brain to their lips, tongue, and mouth to formulate speech.
Cochlear Implants/Hearing Aids/Hearing Loss
Speech-language pathologists support patients who are undergoing cochlear implantation in the form of pre-implantation evaluations and post-implantation speech, language, and auditory/listening therapy.
Cognition/Executive Function
Executive functioning is an area of cognition that encompasses attention, working memory, planning, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility. Executive functioning difficulty can affect an individual’s ability to attend to tasks, process information, and access memories needed to follow directions or maintain conversations.
Cough
Chronic cough or habit cough is a cough that lasts longer than 4 weeks in children, and longer than 8 weeks in adults.
Expressive Language
Expressive language is the ability to communicate thoughts, feelings, wants, and needs through signs, gestures, and words.
Feeding/Swallowing
In the inpatient and outpatient settings, speech-language pathologists diagnose and manage feeding and swallowing disorders.
Fluency/Stuttering
Observable behaviors can include repeating sounds or words, prolonging a sound, or getting stuck on a sound. Individual speech language therapy for school-aged children and teenagers addresses stuttering behaviors as well as thoughts and feelings related to stuttering.
Gestalt Language Processing
Gestalt language processing is a less common, but natural form of language development where individuals use large “chunks” of language that develop into smaller units over time.
Language Processing
A language processing disorder affects one’s ability to attach meaning to sound groups that form words, sentences, and stories.
Memory
A speech-language pathologist evaluates, develops, and teaches strategies to facilitate recall for auditory (what has been heard) and visual (e.g., written, pictures, or observed) information.
Orofacial Myofunctional Disorders (OMDs)
Orofacial myofunctional disorders (OMDs) are disorders that involve patterns of oral and orofacial musculature that interfere with normal growth, development, or function of orofacial structures (tongue, lips, jaw).
Pragmatic/Social Language
Pragmatic language refers to nonverbal communication skills, conversational routines, and the ability to ask for, give, and respond to information during social interactions.
Receptive Language
Receptive language skills include following directions, answering yes/no and wh- questions, understanding grammar, and comprehending vocabulary.
Speaking Valves/Capping Trials
A speaking valve, or one-way valve, is a special attachment to a trach designed to allow air to move though the larynx and to be exhaled from the nose and mouth.
VCD – Vocal Cord Dysfunction
VCD (vocal cord dysfunction) is a condition whereby vocal cords move inconsistently or irregularly after the presentation of a trigger, resulting in difficulty breathing.
Voice
Voice therapy focuses on supporting a healthy voice with efficient phonation, reducing vocal misuse, and incorporating home-practice activities to transition skills to activities of daily living.
