Speech Therapy in Spanish

What happens in speech therapy?

Using aphasia as its example, MedlinePlus says the specific therapy depends on the type of language loss that a person has. It may include exercises in reading, writing, following directions, and repeating what the therapist says. Therapy may also include learning how to communicate with gestures, pictures, smartphones, or other electronic devices, and therapy using a computer may also be helpful. Treatment may be one-on-one with a speech therapist or in a group.

Speech therapy on Medicare paperwork

Medicare uses the name speech-language pathology services. It says these services provide evaluation and treatment to regain and strengthen speech and language skills, including cognitive and swallowing skills. According to Medicare, Part B (Medical Insurance) covers medically necessary outpatient speech-language pathology services, and a doctor or other health care provider must certify that the person needs this care.

What it means

Speech therapy is evaluation and treatment to regain and strengthen speech and language skills; that is how Medicare describes the benefit it lists as speech-language pathology services. MedlinePlus describes the speech-language pathologist or speech therapist as a specialist who treats speech and communication disorders. Medicare says the services include cognitive and swallowing skills, or therapy to improve or maintain current function or slow decline. In its page on aphasia, MedlinePlus calls the treatment both speech-language therapy and speech therapy. It explains that treatment may be one-on-one with a speech therapist or in a group, and that it may include exercises in reading, writing, following directions, and repeating what the therapist says. Family participation may be an important part of speech therapy. In Spanish the term is terapia del habla.

Spanish term: Terapia del habla
Gender and article: feminine: la terapia del habla
Pronunciation: teh-RAH-pyah del AH-blah

Other Spanish terms	Where it is used	Note
terapia del habla y lenguaje	General	Longer name used by MedlinePlus en español in the same page as terapia del habla.
servicios de patología del habla y lenguaje	General	Name that the Spanish-language Medicare site gives to the covered services.

Terapia del habla is the wording of MedlinePlus en español, which writes la terapia del habla with the feminine article and also uses the longer terapia del habla y lenguaje in the same page. The person who gives it is called terapeuta del habla there, and the specialist who does the testing is called patólogo del habla y lenguaje or terapeuta lingüístico. MedlinePlus en español says the therapy may include ejercicios de lectura, escritura, seguir instrucciones y repetir lo que dice el terapeuta.

The Spanish-language Medicare site names the covered benefit differently: servicios de patología del habla y lenguaje, shortened in the page title to servicios de patología del habla. It uses deglución for swallowing and habilidades del habla y del lenguaje for speech and language skills. The RAE dictionary has an entry for fonoaudiología, a feminine noun marked as a medical term (Med.) and defined as the discipline concerned especially with disorders of speech and hearing that affect human communication.

Phrases for an appointment

What a patient or a clinician might say, in English and Spanish:

Who	English	Spanish
Clinician	I am going to refer you to speech therapy.	Voy a referirle a terapia del habla.
Patient	What is speech therapy for? I can speak, but I have trouble finding words.	¿Para qué sirve la terapia del habla? Puedo hablar, pero me cuesta encontrar las palabras.
Clinician	In therapy they will evaluate your speech, your language and your swallowing.	En la terapia le evaluarán el habla, el lenguaje y la deglución.
Patient	Since the stroke, I also cough when I drink water.	Desde el derrame cerebral, también toso cuando tomo agua.
Clinician	You will do exercises in reading, writing and repeating words.	Hará ejercicios de lectura, de escritura y de repetición de palabras.
Patient	How many sessions a week will I have?	¿Cuántas sesiones por semana voy a tener?
Patient	Can my daughter come to the sessions to learn how to help me?	¿Puede venir mi hija a las sesiones para aprender a ayudarme?
Patient	Does my plan cover outpatient speech therapy?	¿Mi plan cubre la terapia del habla ambulatoria?

In 9 languages

Language	Term
English	Speech Therapy
Spanish (Español)	Terapia del habla
Chinese (中文)	言語治療
Korean (한국어)	언어치료
Vietnamese (Tiếng Việt)	Trị liệu ngôn ngữ
Filipino (Tagalog)	Speech therapy
Portuguese (Português)	Fonoaudiologia
Thai (ภาษาไทย)	言語治療
Japanese (日本語)	言語聴覚療法

Where you'll see it

chartEOBbillreferraldischarge summary

Related terms

Your right to an interpreter in the United States

If English is not your primary language and you have difficulty communicating in English, you may need an interpreter or a translated document when you visit a doctor or dentist, go to the emergency room or pick up a prescription. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights states that two federal laws, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, require programs that receive its funding to provide language access services free of charge.

You can ask when you make the appointment or at the front desk: "I need an interpreter, please." «Necesito un intérprete, por favor.»

More terms: Brain and nerves

All terms in this area: Brain and nerves — Cerebro y nervios

Sources

This page is a language reference. It is not medical advice.