Communication: Crucial for expressing ones wants, needs, and thoughts. Communication consists of expressive and receptive language as well as comprehension. Speech therapy can help specifically target any area where a communicative breakdown may occur. This includes but is not limited to, voice, volume, rate, articulation, and language.

Swallowing: Difficulty swallowing can make one feel alone and unable to care for themselves. Symptoms of a swallowing disorder range from messy eating to gurgling to coughing/choking to pain during swallowing.

Cognition: Awareness, thinking skills, memory, and executive functioning all play a role in one's ability to effectively communicate and participate in activities of daily living. Events such as strokes, brain trauma, neurological disorders, head and neck cancers, and neurodegenerative diseases all play a role in cognition, and therefore speech and communication.