Relaxation is a sparkle of youth
Seating assessment : measurements
specialized peripherals and software to access the computer
Examination of the oral cavity due to pain expressed by the child
The Go-talk , a tool to enhance the oral communication
Clinical assessment
Individual Support therapy
respiratory function tests
Relaxation is a sparkle of youth
| INTRODUCTION | The Medical unit | Speech and Language Therapy unit | Physiotherapy unit | Psychomotor Therapy unit | Occupational Therapy unit | Psychology unit | Technical-Aid Unit |
Speech and language therapy is defined as a paramedical discipline that deals with communication disorders, spoken and written language, stutter, voice disorders and dysphagia.
Care may be addressed to children, adolescents, adults and the elderly.
During early intervention, preventive action, guidance or speech and language therapy may be taken to treat infants and young children.
SESOBEL’s Speech and Language Therapy unit supports children with speech and language disorders, social communication and written language disorders, reasoning problems, as well as feeding and swallowing disorders.
THE FIELDS OF ACTION ARE
Oral language
Development of logical thinking structures
Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)
Rehabilitation of eating and swallowing disorders
Written Language
Any child or young one with disability is at risk of developing language delay. Any difficulties faced might affect different aspects of language:
Motor skills: Realizing praxis patterns and articulation of sounds
Phonology and speech skills: uttering words
Expressive skills: use of active lexicon, constructing grammatically correct sentences, as well as coherence of speech and ideas
Comprehension skills: conversational and lexical comprehension
Children with disability suffer from cognitive difficulties that affect their overall development. SESOBEL’s speech-language therapists develop, through play, pre- logical and logical reasoning that allows children and the young to acquire certain cognitive concepts and structures, eventually promoting language, learning and socialization skills.
The therapy’s aim is to:
- Develop first pre-verbal and verbal conducts through sensory and motor discovery
- Enhance sentence construction through the organization of activities and play
- Facilitate academic learning skills by developing basic logical structures
- Reinforce social and professional integration through the development of practical reasoning
Language difficulties hinder children’s or youth’s communication with their community, so they might suffer or become detached from community or workplace.
Therefore, AAC is a therapeutic intervention program that creates communication means that aid individuals lacking practical oral language.Work is performed through nonverbal channels such as gestures, pictures and pictograms...
AAC does not delay or stop language development.
Children can express their needs and desires by using communication boards / devices.
Children with physical or mental disabilities and/or with Autism Spectrum Disorders usually suffer from eating disorders, which may be the result of:
- Motor disorders: characterized by slow eating, as well as choking and inefficient chewing
- Sensory disorders: characterized by food selectivity and by refusal to change texture or taste
These signs are observed in 80% of children and young people with physical or mental disability. (C. Senez , 2002). Dysphagia and feeding disorders may directly impact children's quality of life and their families’.
Treating eating disorders at SESOBEL is done by:
Assessment that includes:
- Meeting patients’ families
- Clinical assessment of alimentary functions that children or the young enjoy, and that can be completed by functional explorations like deglutition cinematography (test prescribed by gastroenterologists) or fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing FEES (test prescribed by otorhinolaryngologists)
- Dieticians’ assessment of the nutritional needs of children or youth
- Elaboration of the rehabilitation plan in collaboration with families
Adopted therapeutic approaches:
-Sensory approaches that deal with sensory processing disorder
-Functional approach that re-educates patients on oral stage of swallowing
- Rehabilitation including compensatory strategies, indirect swallowing therapy, direct swallowing therapy
The goal of swallowing rehabilitation is to identify and treat abnormalities of feeding and swallowing while maintaining safe and efficient alimentation and hydration.
In conclusion, speech-language therapists specialized in children with feeding disorders must be aware of the quotidian life of every child or young patient. They should accompany them while they are « having their meals, not just to provide help with rehabilitation, but also with socialization, handling responsibility, growing up and expressing love». (Yvonne Shami)
Every individual needs to learn how to read and write. Reading and writing enable people with disability to gain independence, to communicate and to have access to learning. These children’s cognitive problems delay their written language acquisition.
When it comes to learning Arabic, the process is more complex; that is, its characteristics (diglossia, vowel sounds, as well as the possibility of multiple graphemes standing for the same phonemes...) While rehabilitating children on written language, SESOBEL’s multidisciplinary team keeps in mind that children’s capacities are different.
The speech-language therapists conduct:
* Special assessment for every case
* Adapted methods to facilitate access to written language acquisition
