Why Does a Speech Pathologist Know About Swallowing?

When people ask about what speech pathology is all about, they rightly expect, from its name, that we deal with people’s speech. That’s true, we assess and treat the speech and language skills of children and adults. These skills form the foundation for learning. In children, strengthening these skills helps the development of their literacy skills. For most people that seems a fairly logical progression then, that a speech pathologist may work with a child’s or adult’s reading, spelling and writing skills.

It seems though a much larger leap to think that a speech pathologist could assess or support someone with a swallowing problem. That’s exactly what I thought when this topic was introduced in my speech pathology course at university.

There is though method in that seeming madness.

The muscles we use to speak are those same muscles that we use to swallow. In fact, swallowing is ideally co-ordinated perfectly with the entire speaking and breathing mechanism.

When we swallow the breathing mechanism pauses momentarily, to protect our airway from anything untoward entering it.

When something goes awry with those muscles or the entire swallowing mechanism, very serious consequences can result.

A speech pathologist’s expertise in this, often taken for granted, bodily function, can offer understanding and support for the client with a swallowing issue (also known as Dysphagia) and their family.

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