Spread of Covid-19 Through Speech Through The Eyes of a Speech Therapist

In April 2020, an article in the form of a note to the editor was published by 2 scientists working at Iran Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences in the Health in Emergencies & Disasters Quarterly Magazine, which publishes health issues in emergencies and disasters.

In this article, the authors discussed the transmission and transmission of coronavirus by speech from a speech therapist perspective.

Many researchers have conducted studies on how the COVID-19 disease, which was detected in late 2019 and started to spread gradually, is transmitted and how they can prevent this transmission. For example, the researchers found that temperatures above 40 ° C and proper ventilation may prevent the virus from developing, reproducing and transmitting, but ambient humidity is ineffective for transport.

One of the main ways of transmitting the disease agent is to spread the virus through droplets during sneezing or coughing or even breathing. For this reason, it has been found that some speech-related factors increase the risk of virus transmission during speech. These factors are examined in three categories in the study:

1- Speakers' Psycholinguistic Factors

Particles and droplets can jump farther from the mouth due to the exaggerated use of speech articulators in the production of high-pressure, bursting sounds such as / p, t, k / in faster-than-normal, high-energy and loud speech.

2- Anatomically Based Speech Disorders

Those who have anterior tooth deficiency, class 3 defective mouth-face abnormalities such as jaw, lip and palate clefts, or who wear oral support devices such as prosthetics and dental orthodontics, have a higher risk of ejecting droplets containing the relevant virus from their mouths than normal people due to lack of closure of the lips or other articulators during speech. .

3- Functionally Based Speech Disorders

People with lisp speech impairment due to the opening of the gap between the lips and the extra air chamber during friction / s, z / and africative / t∫, dž / sounds also have severe stuttering accompanied by secondary lip movements due to the sudden exit of articulators following the tonic spasms caused by stuttering. People have a higher risk of launching droplets containing coronavirus.

In the light of all this information, it is recommended that speech therapists wear face shields, mouthguards and gloves in their clinics, wash their hands before and after clinical sessions, and do therapy at a distance of at least two meters from the client. In addition, it is important to inform clients that they pose a high risk in the possible transmission of the coronavirus mentioned above. On the other hand, it is necessary for speech therapists to seek and / or do interdisciplinary counseling and to cooperate with healthcare teams in order to determine risk factors and the possibility of coronavirus transmission during the conversation. Therefore, speech therapy has an important role in determining and reducing the spread of COVID-19 among individuals.

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