Centre For Hearing, Communication & Swallow Sciences

Department Overview

Centre for Hearing, communication & swallow sciences is one of the advanced centres to offer comprehensive acute and long-term care to people across age groups, from newborns to geriatrics, with hearing, speaking, swallowing and cognition issues which are important for the development of an individual.

This centre works as a core multidisciplinary team consisting of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists to provide inter-professional collaborative care to patients.

Speech Language Pathologists are highly specialised experts involved in identifying, evaluating and treating people with all types of speech, language, social communication, cognitive-communication and swallow disorders. 

Audiologists are experts involved in the diagnosis & management of hearing and balance disorders of various origins.

Our experts work closely with Neurologists, Neurosurgeons, Surgical, Radiation, Medical Oncologists, Gastroenterologists, Otorhinolaryngologists, Cardio Thoracic, Critical Care, Internal Medicine, Paediatricians, Nuclear Medicine, Spine & Orthopaedic Specialities.

The centre provides in-patient, out-patient and on tele mode services as clinically indicated.

Healthy Hearing at Rela Hospital :

Centre for Hearing, communication & Swallow Sciences provides hearing health care of the highest calibre to people affected by hearing loss and listening challenges. 

The specialists are uniquely skilled in addressing all ages’ hearing and communication needs with an upgraded Audiology lab with high-end Audiological equipment for assessment & habilitation.

With the state-of-the-art technology available, the centre is equipped to perform

• Universal New-born hearing screening at birth in babies as young as one day old & High-risk babies
• School-going children who have trouble focusing in academics due to hearing loss or auditory processing disorder
• Pre & post operative hearing evaluation for brain tumours
• Baseline Hearing evaluation before delivery of Chemotherapy
• Monitoring of hearing loss during chemotherapy
• Annual hearing evaluations for people at risk for developing hearing loss due to noise exposure at the workplace 
• Hearing evaluation post trauma
• Post-viral illness, Diabetes, Kidney diseases, ear infections
• Age-related hearing loss 

We offer Hearing restoration & Aural Habilitation using technologies such as hearing aids, Implantable hearing solutions.

Vestibular & Balance Clinic at Rela Hospital :

The human ear also serves as an organ of body balance. As a result, one may experience dizziness with a change in posture or due to underlying nerve damage which can eventually result in a fall or injury.

The Specialists in the Balance clinic at Rela Hospital evaluate the disorders of balance & provide treatment along with the other team of specialists in alleviating the condition.

Rela Hospital  Speech, Language, Swallow & Cognition Care:

Centre for Hearing, Communication & Swallow Sciences provides high-end care for individuals with multiple issues related to speech, communication & cognitive abilities.

Deglutology:

Disorders of swallowing can be extremely debilitating as they can interfere with the nutrition and health of an individual and lead to life-threatening complications such as recurrent chest infections. 

At Rela Hospital, we provide rehabilitation for swallowing after a thorough clinical examination & further imaging, if necessary, to understand the pathophysiology of swallowing.

Specialists work with the following population with swallowing disorders:

• Head & neck tumour/ cancer
• Brain Stroke
• Cardiac surgery
• Head trauma
• Cervical Spine injury/fixation
• Neurodegenerative disorders – Motor Neuron diseases, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, Ataxia
• Gastro-Intestinal Disorders 
• Critical Illness Neuropathy
• Developmental disorders, Eg. Cerebral Palsy, Autism, ADHD, Syndromes 
• Feeding issues in children
• Early intervention for high-risk children
• Congenital malformations
• Dementia

The Specialists are involved in recommending the mode of nutrition that is most suitable for the person & rehabilitate to acquire the swallowing ability.

Speech & Language:

Communication is an integral part of all living beings. This centre has been working towards facilitating communication in adults.

People who have lost the ability to speak and communicate due to:

• Brain stroke

• Head trauma
• Developmental disorders, Eg. Cerebral Palsy, Autism, ADHD, Delayed speech
• Presence of Tracheostomy
• Throat cancer, Oral cancer
• Brain tumour – Post Surgery/Radiation
• Neurological disorders
• Any other medical condition that impairs one’s ability to communicate & interact verbally 

Vocology:

Voice disorders are common nowadays, especially among professional voice users. We have specialised software that helps analyse the acoustics of voice. Furthermore, our specialists trained in vocology provide recommendations to improve the aesthetics of voice for singers and other professional voice users.

Cognition:

This highly specialised centre is involved in evaluating and rehabilitating cognitive disorders. We perform a cognitive diagnostic evaluation along with brain functional imaging (FDG PET) for people with complaints of memory loss. In addition, our team provides cognitive rehabilitation to people with Alzheimer’s disease, Frontotemporal dementia, Post-traumatic cognitive disorders, Cognitive disorders of vascular origin, etc.

Brain Stimulation & Mapping:

Our Specialists are involved in pre-operative & intra-operative language evaluation in patients undergoing Awake Craniotomy for brain tumour excision, which helps the neurosurgeons avoid disabling language or communication deficits post-surgery. 

The specialists are involved in pre-operative & intra-operative speech assessment in patients with Parkinsons’ Disease undergoing Deep Brain Stimulation.

Paediatrics:

The Speech Language Pathologists provide evaluation and treatment of a variety of disorders in the paediatric population, such as

• Children having issues acquiring speech, developmental delay, autism spectrum disorder
• Children with stuttering, misarticulation, voice disorders
• Children with feeding & swallowing disorders
• Children with reading & writing disorders

After a thorough developmental assessment, the SLPs diagnose & provide therapeutic interventions. 

Centre for Hearing, Communication & Swallow Sciences at Rela Hospital serves as a holistic unit caring for people across age groups from birth to senescence multidimensionally, including Hearing, Speech, Swallow, Cognition, Development, and Communication making it one of its kind.