About Our Program

Speech and language therapy services at Doylestown Hospital include a variety of professional services geared towards identifying communication and swallowing problems and helping people develop effective communication and swallowing skills.  Some of the services we provide include helping people:

• With communication problems relearn language communication skills
  
• With reduced speech clarity learn proper sound production and ways to improve their speech understandability
  
• With voice disorders learn ways to avoid voice abuse and use techniques to improve how they sound to others
  
• Who stutter speak with more fluent speech
  
• With swallowing difficulties learn exercises and swallowing techniques to enable easier and safer swallowing skills
  
• With memory loss and other "thinking" difficulties learn ways to improve concentration, memory and problem solving

Videofluoroscopy

A videofluoroscopic swallowing examination is a swallowing study, performed at Doylestown Hospital.  It is used to identify swallowing difficulties in the oral cavity, pharynx and laryngeal areas.  This examination is helpful in determining the best method of nutritional intake and in designing appropriate therapy techniques.  Various food and liquid consistencies are used during the study which is performed under the expertise of a Radiologist and a Speech/Language Pathologist.  A physician prescription is necessary in order to perform this study.  Please contact Centralized Scheduling at 215-345-2274 to schedule an appointment.

VitalStim Swallowing Therapy

VitalStim is an innovative treatment for the remediation of oro-pharyngeal swallowing disorders.  This therapy uses electrical stimulation to activate the muscles necessary for swallowing.  While the electrical stimulation is being performed, the speech therapist employs both exercises and compensatory strategies aimed at improving the strength and coordination of the swallowing muscles.

VitalStim is the only neuromuscular electrical stimulation that has been cleared by the Food & Drug Administration for use with oro-pharyngeal swallowing impairments. VitalStim therapy must be prescribed by a physician and can only be performed by a health care professional certified in its use.  Please contact Deb Moneta, MS,CCC at 215-345-2014 to schedule an appointment.

About our Speech/Language Pathologists

The speech-language pathologists at Doylestown Hospital hold a master's degree, are licensed by the State of Pennsylvania and have earned the Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech-Language Pathology (CCC-SLP) from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA).