Assessing Patients in Speech Language Pathology
Speech language pathology is a diverse profession, with most therapists who choose to fulfill a general role working with both adults and children from numerous backgrounds. Aside from the inherent differences linked to the age of the patient, pathologists must also consider any ethnic requirements and be aware of influential circumstances, such as medical issues or events that may have contributed to the problem they are now treating.
Speech language pathology jobs involve a wide skill set with some of the most diverse methods of assessment of any profession. There are numerous methods of diagnosis that differ between adults and children, and a skilled practitioner will be able to combine knowledge gained from other professionals to quickly decide upon the type of assessment required.
Assessing Children
Speech language pathology jobs that involve working with children incorporate a much wider range of assessment and diagnosis techniques than working with adults. Generally, any work that the pathologist undertakes with adults is in direct response to another medical condition or injury, allowing the therapist to use pre-existing knowledge about the effects or certain issues and eliminate many possibilities without even consulting the patient.
Children, on the other hand, may fall into a variety of different categories. Some have speech and language difficulties due to birth defects, which may be quickly identified, and the assessment process follows a similar path to the diagnosis of adults. However, many deficiencies cannot be identified until the child has built up a certain level of communication ability. The therapist is then faced with discovering the problem without any prior knowledge from colleagues.
In such cases, pathologists use their training to administer a number of tests that cover understanding and expression, focusing on different areas of communication such as the understanding of words and pictures or the ability to communicate using correct words and grammar.
Assessing Adults
The assessment of adults is often much easier, because any inherent conditions are often identified in childhood. One of the most common causes of difficulties in adults is aphasia, which can often be caused by head injuries or strokes. It is also somewhat common in patients who are suffering from a number of degenerative diseases. Therapists learn to identify the disease using the Boston Diagnostic Examination, which involves extensive tests to establish the presence and severity of the disease.
Many other speech and language difficulties in adults are caused by physical issues, such as cysts on the vocal fold or paralysis of the vocal cord. Such issues are often identified before the pathologist encounters the patient, speeding up the full diagnosis and allowing treatment to commence earlier.
Speech language pathology jobs cover a wide spectrum of patient types with a varied range of issues. The ability to assess the root cause of an issue aids greatly in administering the correct treatment quickly. Practitioners should also be aware that specializing in the treatment of younger patients potentially requires stronger diagnosis skills than those needed to work exclusively with adults.