During the second stage of treatment, the therapist teaches the patient new speech skills. Tongue exercises and speech drills may be used. After the patients have improved their speech, they learn to use their skills in everyday situations. Speech therapy may be given individually or in groups. Therapists put patients in groups if they think that contact with people who have similar defects will bring rapid improvement.
Many people feel more at home and less self-conscious in a group than when alone with a therapist.
They also receive encouragement by listening to others and by hearing the improvement of members of the group. Most patients with complex speech problems, such as aphasia, receive individual therapy. Some patients attend both kinds of sessions. People have studied speech and speech problems for more than 2,000 years. However, little progress in the treatment of speech defects occurred until the 1700's and 1800's.