Speech and language disorders can also occur in adults, for example due to aphasia, which is caused by damaged areas in the brain. In a speech therapy practice, exercises are put together individually for the person concerned so that speaking and language skills can be restored.

The linguistic impairments of adults are either congenital (e.g. disabilities or syndromes) or acquired (e.g. tumors, stroke, traumatic brain injury). In adulthood, we treat language disorders, speech disorders, voice disorders and swallowing disorders in all degrees of severity.

These can be caused by very different underlying diseases. The aim of our therapies with adults is to promote the specific deficits through everyday therapy. The focus is on the individual potentials in order to develop skills based on this and to accompany the functions and activities therapeutically towards the best possible physiology, thereby alleviating the restrictions and improving quality of life and participation.

Language problems that have a neurological cause are called aphasia. Aphasia manifests itself in varying degrees of severity in a language production disorder and / or a language comprehension disorder. People who have a speech production disorder find it much more difficult to come up with a certain word, because of it they paraphrase a lot and use a lot of filler words or phrases such as "ehm" or "things, you know ...". This often leads to breaks in a sentence.

A language production disorder can be so pronounced that only a certain word or phrases are uttered that do not fit in terms of content, but the person concerned is aware of this and understands language largely without difficulty. People with a speech understanding disorder no longer understand language or do not understand it completely. This can manifest itself in such a way that prompts are no longer understood in everyday life and affected people lose their orientation in everyday life. Linguistically, people with a speech comprehension disorder often express themselves in extremely long, verbose sentences that are mostly poor in content.

It is important to say here that if you suspect a swallowing problem, it is very important to consult a doctor early on, as frequent swallowing can lead to pneumonia and thus become life-threatening. A swallowing disorder can be helped with specific exercises to strengthen the muscles and increase sensitivity, as well as with dietary adjustments. It can manifest itself in a very light form, but it can also happen that affected persons can no longer safely ingest food and sometimes have to be supplied with a tracheostomy tube.

Another field of treatment is the voice problem. It manifests itself, among other things, in a hoarse, fragile, quiet voice that is not optimally resilient. Affected people often feel an effort and tension when speaking, which can also be painful. Voice disorders can have a functional, an organic and / or a psychogenic origin.

Functional means that the voice as our tool is not optimally “used”. For example, it is often the case with affected people that breathing is quite shallow as the basis for a good voice and is not used optimally. In contrast, it can also be that too much pressure is exerted on the vocal folds and thus a very tense, powerful voice is created. They can also strengthen the vocal folds as muscles and thus become more resilient. A fundamental component of this therapy, however, is also posture and your own perception of your body and voice.

These components are also essential in the therapy of organically caused voice problems. Basic organic diseases can be, for example, an irritated nerve after a thyroid operation or paralysis of a vocal cord and a tumor in the larynx. In addition to posture, breathing, vocalization and voice perception, compensatory measures are a very important component here in order to compensate for the function of a no longer active vocal fold.

Stimulation current therapy is very effective, especially for nerve disorders. Psychogenic voice problems should be combined with professional psychotherapeutic treatment to address not only the effect, the voice problem, but also the source of the voice problem. External and internal side effects, such as high stress and insecurity, but also movements in the face or with the body, are just as individual.