Adult Speech Therapy: 14 Things You Need To Know (But Were Never Told)

Gina Britt
6 days ago
4 min read

This post is all about speech therapy for adults

I love working with adult clients for speech therapy! No frilly games or fuss, just straight to the point (and I like to inject a little humor in there!) I have been an SLP for 14+ years and here are some thoughts I have about speech therapy for adults after working in private clinics, traumatic brain injury acute and post-acute setting, and many nursing homes!

Cognitive Rehabilitation

You will be working on thinking skills, such as higher level problem solving, reasoning, memory, word finding and more!

👉🏻If you are anything like me and struggle to find adult speech therapy materials that don't look like they were created in the 1700's take a look at my Shop Website or TPT Store for some Cognitive Speech therapy tasks for adults!

SNF's + Hospitals + Rehab Centers

These are the places where you will find adults that need speech therapy services. SNFs= skilled nursing facility center.

Speech Therapy Worksheets for Adults

There are worksheets for adults but in my opinion a lot of them have small font, no pictures, are outdated and a little boring. That's why I have been working on creating up-to-date functional tasks to use.

Purchase these bilingual speech therapy labels for the home on my website shop or teachers pay teachers store Let's keep our field up-to-date and continue to provide functional, meaningful and enjoyable services.

Traumatic Brain Injury

Adults who suffer from a traumatic brain injury (think car accident with trauma to the head or a stroke) benefit from speech therapy services to help them regain their cognitive communication skills.

Stroke

After a stroke, specifically on the left side, patient's can have word finding difficulties and will greatly benefit from speech therapy for adults.

Voice

I always found this to be such as difficult task. How can you measure a voice? I know... I've used the fancy machines, the dB measuring apps, and I am also certified in LSVT. Still... if you are like me and find this challenging I created a step-by-step workbook on diaphragmatic breathing with speaking on the exhalation.

It comes with an editable data tracking tool that helps you keep track of all those pesky tests we forget about that live somewhere in the depths of our mind ... think S/Z ratio.

Yea, those! This has everything easily laid out for you so you can provide up-to-date and effective therapy without having to think or prep!

Purchase this deep breathing packet with vocal exercises on my website shop or teachers pay teachers store

Group games for the SNF

A crowd pleaser at the SNF, particularly if you awkardly step into a room of 5+ people visiting their great grandpa and you need to get your minutes in..... CATCH PHRASE! Include the whole family.

How to win over a patient in the SNF?

Coffee and the newspaper. Or strike up a conversation about things they have passionate about their whole life (gardening, business...)

Executive Functioning

I used to avoid trying to think about this term because the words themself sound awfully boring and long. However, this is a phrase I have come to love! Being able to work with patients holistically (including their thinking skills as well as their speech) has been a joy!

Purchase this executive functioning vacation planning task for adults on my website shop or teachers pay teachers store

Memory Activities for Adults | MARV

Always keep things functional. My favorite task to work on is when the family can provide a photo album and the person can describe long-term memory facts. For short term memory, using a planner (either paper or digital works best). Sometimes it is hard to store information in the brain.

However, there are lots of memory strategies to teach. My favorite are

M Mnemonics

A Association

R Repetition

V Visualization

This worksheet is available for free in both the English and Spanish version.

MARV Memory Strategies Free PDF

Free Speech Therapy Resources

I love using freebies! Sometimes, our jobs do not allocate funds to materials so getting freebies is important. My favorite freebies are teacher pay teachers (filter out free materials), talk path therapy (app and desktop version available), talk path news (great for older clients) or creating my own on Canva in real-time.

Speech Therapy At Home

I like speech therapy at home because you can customize your sessions to your client's needs. Maybe your client enjoys cooking, needs help organizing their space or struggles with safety awareness. These are easily targeted in the home setting.

Cognitive Speech Therapy For Adults

Cognitive therapy focuses on thinking skills, such as memory, processing information, reasoning, judgement, mental flexibility, and more!

Purchase this worksheet here on my website shop or my teachers pay teachers store

Speech Therapy Jokes

I believe strongly in the healing power of humor. I mean, my whole band is based around humor/sarcasm. It's a part of me there fore it will be a part of me sessions as well. However, there is a time and a place so use with discretion.

This was something I loved about my job with traumatic brain injury. Everyone was always making jokes, smiling, fighting through the hardest times of their lives and overcoming insurmountable obstacles.