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. During the 1700's, speech specialists worked mostly with the deaf. Successful teachers of the deaf included Thomas Braidwood, a Scottish mathematician. Braidwood taught his students to talk by starting with simple sounds and then progressing to syllables and, finally, words.