Speech Therapy for Adults: A Helpful and Definitive Guide
Leanne Sherred, M.S., CCC-SLP
Speech therapy is often associated with children. But speech-language pathologists also support adults with speech or language problems. Whether these issues originated in childhood, or developed as a result of an illness or injury in adulthood, many can be treated with speech therapy.
Key takeaways
Many communication issues in adults can be treated with speech therapy, from a childhood lisp or stutter to language problems caused by a stroke.
Speech therapy can also help adults with autism or ADHD communicate more effectively.
Speech therapy begins with a full evaluation. The speech therapist will develop a treatment plan based on this assessment and the person's goals.
Most adults have speech therapy one to two times per week, depending on their condition. The length of speech therapy depends on the person's needs, how much they practice between sessions, and how consistently they attend sessions.
Many adults choose online speech therapy for convenience, flexibility, and cost reasons. Studies show teletherapy to be just as effective as in-person services.
Get matched with a speech therapist who's right for you
Get started nowWhat is speech therapy for adults?
Speech therapy can help improve a wide variety of communication, language, speech, and voice issues in adults.
In fact, speech and language disorders are common in adults. For example, according to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association:
More than 3 million Americans stutter.
Approximately 2 million Americans have aphasia.
Approximately 9.4 million adults report having a problem using their voice that lasted one week or longer.
While communication problems are common, not everyone seeks treatment, even though working one-on-one with a speech therapist can often help.
Common speech and language conditions in adults
Here are some of the common speech and language disorders in adults that can be treated with speech therapy.
Aphasia: This condition results from a brain injury or stroke affecting the language areas of the brain. Aphasia affects a person’s ability to use or understand words. It can make it hard to retrieve certain words and affect the ability to speak, read, or write. It is estimated that 2 million adults in the U.S. have aphasia and that nearly 180,000 Americans acquire it every year.
Apraxia: This is a motor speech disorder that makes it difficult or impossible to control the muscles used to form words, even though the person wants to speak and the muscles are physically able to form words. Apraxia can happen in adults as the result of head injury, dementia, or stroke. This type of apraxia in adults is called acquired apraxia of speech.
Dysarthria: When the muscles used for speech are weak, this can cause slurred, quiet, or slow speech that may be hard for others to understand. Dysarthria can happen in adults as the result of head injury, muscular dystrophy, or a stroke.
Learn the causes of speech sound disorders in adults and how speech therapy helps adults correct speech problems.
Lisps: The most common form of a lisp occurs when someone makes a “th” sound when trying to say an /s/ or /z/ sound. Lisps are caused by the incorrect placement of a person’s tongue inside their mouth during speech. Many adults have lisps that weren't properly treated in their younger years. It's never too late to receive speech therapy to improve a lisp.
Stuttering: Problems with fluency, or smoothness of speech, involve the involuntary repetition of syllables, sounds, or words. Stuttering affects people of all ages. Adults who stutter know what they want to say, but they have difficulty producing their speech fluently. Stuttering affects around 3 million Americans.
Voice disorders: Anything that interferes with your vocal cord movement can cause a voice disorder. Voice disorders affect pitch, volume, and tone. Some voice disorders include laryngitis, polyps, vocal cord paralysis, and spasmodic dysphonia. People with Parkinson's disease may also struggle with voice and speech issues. If you have a voice disorder, your voice may quiver, be weak, sound hoarse or strained, or change in pitch.
Dementia: This is an overall term for diseases and conditions that result in a loss of cognitive functioning. Dementia can greatly interfere with a person’s daily life. Dementia not only affects a person's memory, but their ability to use language. Speech therapy can help with this, as well as provide help for eating, drinking, and swallowing difficulties that many dementia patients possess. Currently more than 6 million Americans have dementia.
Laryngeal cancer: Cancer in the larynx, a part of the throat, and procedures to treat laryngeal cancer may affect a person’s ability to speak. Speech therapy can help patients recover from surgeries and learn to speak again. Roughly 12,000 Americans are diagnosed with laryngeal cancer every year.
Speech therapy that gets results
At Expressable, our research-based care model delivers meaningful outcomes for kids and adults. See our results from more than 13,000 clients.
See our outcomesSpeech therapy for adults with autism
Speech therapy is also helpful for adults with other communication needs. Many autistic adults find that neurodiversity-affirming speech therapy helps them learn to communicate in a way that’s effective and authentic to who they are.
There are many ways speech therapy can support autistic adults. For example, they may choose to focus on:
Social skills, such as maintaining a two-way conversation, knowing how and when to switch topics, and understanding other people’s viewpoints
Understanding social cues, such as identifying a person’s meaning based on their tone of voice
Communication skills for work, such as participating in meetings or messaging with coworkers
Speech therapy for adults with ADHD
Speech therapists support adults with ADHD by treating cognitive-communication or executive function issues that arise from attention problems. Speech therapy for ADHD typically includes a combination of approaches to support challenges related to time management, problem solving, planning and prioritizing tasks, and more. In speech therapy, adults with ADHD can learn strategies to help them succeed at home, at work, and in the community.
Learn how speech therapy can help treat cognitive communication deficits caused by a brain injury or other cognitive problems.
Help with pronunciation and accent modification
Accents are a natural part of language. However, sometimes people want to change the way they pronounce words because of difficulties being understood. This can lead to trouble at work, at school, or socially. Accent modification speech therapy teaches people methods to change their sound and intonation in order to meet their speech goals.
People who seek accent modification are often:
People who speak English as a second language
People who have a regional dialect they'd like to adjust
People who want to communicate more effectively at work
Professional communication coaching
Whether you'd like to improve your public speaking or presentation abilities, strengthen your interviewing skills, or simply communicate more effectively on the job, speech therapy can help adults grow in their career.
An experienced speech therapist can also help adults improve their interpersonal skills to better communicate and form relationships with other people, whether they're coworkers, clients, customers, or peers.
Professional communication skills matter. Communication coaching can boost confidence, improve public speaking, and help you succeed at work.
How speech therapy works for adults
Speech therapy begins with a full evaluation to determine the person's needs. This may involve standardized or informal tests, as well as a review of the person's medical history.
The speech therapist may use a variety of activities to assess receptive language, expressive language, fluency, speech sounds, executive functioning, or social skills. Often, evaluations will include conversation so the therapist can make clinical observations. They may also interview family members to learn more about the person's communication challenges.
After the evaluation is complete, if treatment is needed, the speech therapist will develop a treatment plan based on their findings and the person's goals. They will also recommend the proper frequency of speech therapy sessions.
How a speech therapy session is structured depends on the diagnosis, care plan, goals, and individual person. Typical speech therapy sessions for adults may involve language intervention activities. These are individualized exercises designed to improve language development. Speech therapists will model language using pictures, books, and objects to improve vocabulary and communication.
For lisps and other speech sound issues, sessions will focus on articulation therapy. The speech therapist provides individual exercises to teach specific sounds and patterns.
A person who stutters might learn techniques to speak more smoothly or to feel more confident in their speech. Speech therapy for professional communication might include role-playing or mock interviews or presentations.
No matter how the session is set up, the speech therapist should provide exercises and activities for the person to practice at home between sessions. Regular practice is essential for reinforcing what you've learned, maintaining your progress, and graduating more quickly.
In speech therapy for adults, how much you practice will have big benefits for your progress. It also affects how long speech therapy takes.
How long does speech therapy take for adults?
Speech therapists wish they had a crystal ball to provide a short answer to this question! The long answer is that each person's progress will depend on their individual needs, how much they practice between speech therapy sessions, and how consistently they attend sessions.
How often should adults have speech therapy?
Most adults meet with their speech therapist one to two times per week. Depending on the therapy and severity of the condition, more intensive schedules are occasionally needed.
Learn how speech therapists make decisions about the frequency of therapy sessions and how often most children and adults have speech therapy.
3 reasons to consider online speech therapy
Whether it's convenience, cost, or flexibility, there are several reasons adults choose teletherapy over in-person services.
1 Teletherapy is often more affordable
In-person practices have to pay for expenses that aren’t directly related to patient care, such as facility costs. With online speech therapy, these cost savings are passed down to patients. Many virtual speech therapy providers accept hundreds of insurance plans, including Medicare and Medicaid. In addition, you save on commuting costs.
2 Flexible scheduling and convenience
Instead of spending time traveling to and from in-person therapy sessions, you can attend appointments from the comfort and privacy of home. You also have greater flexibility to schedule sessions at the times you prefer, such as early evenings or weekends, navigating around busy work and family schedules.
3 Just as effective as traditional therapy
When you work with a licensed speech therapist, there’s no difference in quality between doing it online or in-person. The research backs that up, with studies showing that online speech therapy is effective and reliable for adults with aphasia, dysarthria, Parkinson's disease, traumatic brain injury, vocal fold nodules, and more.
Find a speech therapist for adults
At Expressable, we work with adults around the country on a range of speech, language, and communication issues. Whether you're looking for support for yourself or a loved one, it's never too late to strengthen communication. Get matched here with the right speech therapist for your needs.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Yes! Many adults of all ages receive speech therapy for a variety of conditions. Whether your speech or language issue originated in childhood, or developed after an illness or injury later in life, it can likely be treated with speech therapy. That includes stuttering, voice problems, aphasia, apraxia, dysarthria, articulation issues like a lisp, communication difficulties related to autism or ADHD, and more.
Yes! Many adults who stutter receive speech therapy. Some adults who stutter want to learn techniques to speak more smoothly. Other are more focused on learning to speak confidently and advocate for themselves in all types of situations. Your speech therapist will create a stuttering treatment plan with goals personalized to your needs.
It depends on the cause. Neurogenic stuttering after a stroke sometimes improves as the brain heals. When stuttering is a side effect of medication, it often resolves once the medication is adjusted. Psychogenic stuttering may improve with mental health support. However, working with a speech therapist will speed recovery and help you manage stuttering regardless of whether it fully resolves.
Adults may have a lisp for several reasons, including incorrect tongue placement learned in childhood, a history of tongue thrust, a tongue tie, or jaw alignment differences. Some adults simply never received treatment as children. If a lisp is affecting your clarity or confidence, consider contacting a speech therapist for an evaluation to explore your options.
Acquired apraxia of speech can't always be fully cured, but many adults see major improvement with consistent speech therapy. Some people experience spontaneous recovery—especially in the weeks and months after a stroke—but speech therapy is usually needed for the best outcomes. Progress depends on the severity of the apraxia, the cause, and how often someone practices. Adults with mild to moderate apraxia often regain functional communication. Those with severe or progressive forms may focus on maximizing clarity and using alternative communication strategies.
How Expressable Can Help
Concerned your child isn't reaching age-expected milestones? Looking for communication support from a professional? Expressable is a national online speech and occupational therapy practice serving children and adults. We treat all major areas of communication, feeding, and developmental skills, offer flexible hours including evenings and weekends, and accept most major health insurance plans. We’re proud to have earned more than 4,500 5-star reviews from our clients (4.83/5 average).
Our therapy model is centered on parent and caregiver involvement. Research proves that empowering caregivers to participate in their loved one’s therapy leads to better outcomes. That’s why we combine live, 1-on-1 speech and occupational therapy with personalized education and home practice activities for faster progress.
