Adult Speech Therapy Singapore

Swallowing

Dysphagia (i.e., difficulty swallowing) affects a person’s quality life and can be distressing for both patients and their loved ones. For patients with dysphagia, food or fluids might enter the lungs, which can cause a lung infection. Patients with swallowing difficulty might also be at risk of malnutrition and dehydration.

Expected Clients: Those with neurological diseases (e.g., Parkinson’s, dementia, and stroke) and head and neck cancers

Usual Referral Source: ENTs, Neurologists, Respiratory Doctors

Service Delivery: Clinic sessions, nursing homes (if unable to go to site, may consider developing an SOP for tele-screening), teletherapy (for rehab cases), home therapy

Initial Session Length: 45 minutes

Review Session Length: 30 minutes to 45 minutes

Types of Intervention:

• Swallow rehabilitation
• Modifying food textures and fluid consistencies
• Postural adjustments while eating/drinking
• Safe feeding techniques
• Caregiver training

Cost: Similar price to pediatric speech therapy service

Stuttering

Those who stutter may continuously repeat sounds or words, stretch a sound out for a long time or have a hard time getting a word out.

Usual Referral Source: Walk-ins

Service Delivery: In clinic or teletherapy

Initial Session Length: Assessment (1hr)

Review Session Length: Intervention (45 mins to 1 hr)

Cost: Similar price to pediatric speech therapy service

Speech

A speech disorder is a motor disorder where a person may not sound clear, may be slurred or may have difficulties producing speech sounds accurately.

Expected Clients: Those with neurological diseases (e.g., Parkinson’s, stroke, brain injury) and head and neck cancers (e.g., tongue cancer)

Usual Referral Source: ENTs, Neurologists

Service Delivery: In clinic, home therapy or teletherapy (preferred for Parkinson’s patients where therapy involves loud speech which is an aerosol generating procedure)

Session length (both assessment and reviews) : 45 minutes to 1 hour

What is done in session?

• Speech tasks and jaw/lip/tongue exercises
• Compensatory strategies to improve patients’ ability to express themselves
• Caregiver training to teach communication strategies

Cost: Similar price to pediatric speech therapy service

Language and Cognitive - Communication

Difficulty understanding others, reading, expressing themselves appropriately, finding the words for speech or writing.

Expected Clients: Those with neurological diseases (e.g., Parkinson’s, stroke, brain injury) or brain injury

Usual Referral Source: Neurologists

Service Delivery: In clinic, home therapy or teletherapy

Session length (both assessment and reviews): 1 hour (at times, the session may be broken into shorter blocks if the client has attention issues)

What is done in session?

• Communication tasks to improve specific skills based on goals set by client
• Compensatory strategies to improve patients’ ability to understand others or express themselve
• Caregiver training to teach communication strategies

Cost: Similar price to pediatric speech therapy service