May is BETTER SPEECH AND HEARING MONTH

In case you didn’t know, this month has been dedicated to raising public awareness, knowledge and understanding of communication impairments including hearing, language, speech and voice for the past 75 years!

Some interesting facts from the Michigan State University’s Communicative Sciences and Disorders website:

*43,000,000 people in the US suffer from a speech, language, voice and/or hearing impairment.
*28,000,000 suffer from a hearing loss.
*10% of children have moderate to severe communication impairments.
*Approximately 1,000,000 people in the US suffer from aphasia – a language disorder resulting from brain damage (often caused by a stroke).

If you are concerned about a communication impairment/disorder, the following article is a good resource to help you decide if you should seek the help of speech-language pathologist or audiologist:
http://www.asha.org/About/news/Press-Releases/2008/detectdisorders.htm


Also check out the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s website for further information about Better Speech and Hearing Month:  http://www.asha.org/bhsm/