A fellow of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Dr. Peter Blendonohy practices with Rehabilitation Associates of the Midwest. In this role, Dr. Peter Blendonohy provides care to patients receiving such rehabilitation services as speech therapy.
Speech therapy is a common treatment for numerous types of language and speech difficulties. Some common speech disorders that can affect adults include:
- Apraxia. A motor speech disorder, apraxia of speech occurs when there is a disruption between the messages sent from the brain to the mouth. In most cases, this is caused by brain damage resulting from a stroke or other injury. Individuals with apraxia of speech typically struggle with moving their lips and tongue in the right way to say different words.
- Dysarthria. Another motor speech disorder that can be caused by brain damage, dysarthria alters how the muscles in the face and mouth move. The disorder can affect numerous muscles involved in the production of speech - including the diaphragm, tongue, and vocal folds - and is often signified by slurred speech, abnormal pitch, and a slow or quick rate of speech.
- Stuttering. One of the most recognizable disorders, stuttering in adulthood typically carries over from childhood. This condition is characterized by disfluencies, or disruptions, in speech sounds. These interruptions in speech could come in the form of pauses or the repetition of syllables or whole words, and they can make communication difficult depending on the number of disfluencies an individual has during conversations.