As Better Hearing and Speech Month continues, learn about the speech therapy team’s work on Units 2 and 3.The speech therapy team on Units 2 and 3 provides services to infants, toddlers, children and adolescents who are hospitalized for a wide variety of reasons including prematurity, medical complexity, and recovery from acute illness or injury. For medically complex infants, therapy services include feeding and swallowing (evaluating swallowing safety, facilitating pre-feeding skills for children who are not eating by mouth, reducing dependence on g-tube or ng-tube feeding, teaching feeding techniques to caregivers) as well as promoting the development of cognitive and language skills in the first years of life. For rehabilitation patients who are recovering from acute illness or injury, our services are focused on improving cognitive functioning (memory, attention, orientation), expressive and receptive language skills (listening comprehension, spoken language, pictures, sign language, or voice output devices/iPad apps to aid communication) as well as evaluating and treating oral-motor and swallowing issues (dysphagia).Caregivers are considered an important member of the team and are encouraged to observe and participate in therapeutic feeding sessions and cognitive/communication activities as frequently as possible.
