“15-20% of Italians have speech disorders ranging from difficulty in developing and structuring language to swallowing problems. A large slice of the population that must be evaluated by the speech doctor and then rehabilitated by the technician in charge, the speech therapist. They are patients of all ages, from 3 to 90 years, indeed until death occurs. Early diagnosis is fundamental. In particular, with children suffering from specific language disorders it is necessary to intervene as soon as possible: already at 2-3 years of age it could be too late “. Luigi Maiolino, president of the Italian Society of Phoniatrics and Speech Therapy (Sifel) and full professor of Audiology at the Policlinico di Cataniaon the sidelines of the 108th National Congress of the Italian Society of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery in progress in Rome until Saturday 28 May.
“From the work of the congress – he highlights – many innovations emerged in the field of phoniatrics which, I recall, is a discipline that deals with swallowing as well as all the pathologies of the voice. In fact, there are many problems related to swallowing, in particular for the elderly. Then we treat the child who has not learned and structured language for various pathologies and the adult with neurological pathologies that involve speech and swallowing disorders. We are talking about aphasic subjects (people who cannot remember the name of people and objects) and dysarctic (those who are unable to fluently articulate a complete meaningful sentence). , including dyslexia and dysgraphia, until recently underestimated “.
In the diagnostic field, the congress was also an opportunity “to discuss the important innovations reached regarding the problems related to swallowing disorders for the elderly – remarks Maiolino – Thanks to the technology that supports us a lot, we are able to highlight with three-dimensional devices the path that food makes from the mouth to the stomach through the esophagus. This allows us to locate the site of the stenosis, or the lesion in which the swallowing disorder develops. With modern and effective diagnostic means, we have a greater possibility of reaching a correct and better rehabilitation therapy “.
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