Tools for Stroke Speech Therapy

# Aphasia is the difficulty with speech suffered by those who have had brain damage caused by the stroke. Aphasia can present as difficultly expressing oneself in speaking, problems in understanding speech, and trouble with reading and writing. The National Institute of Health estimates 1 million people in the U.S. suffer from aphasia. Intensive language therapy exercises can help restore speaking and understanding ability for many of these patients.
Picture Cards and Boards
# Picture cards that depict daily living and everyday objects can be very helpful for aphasia patients to practice word recall, make visual connections and retrain vocal muscles. Showing the cards repeatedly and saying the words aloud exercises the muscles involved in speech and refines vocalization. Picture boards can also be used as cues to vocalizing everyday phrases and naming routine activities

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LSU helps treat adults with communication disorders

Research at LSU’s Communication Outcomes Research Laboratory (COR) is aimed at helping adult stroke, dementia, Parkinson’s disease and traumatic brain injury patients and their caregivers.

“We work with the LSU Speech, Language, Hearing Clinic to be sure students receive training in the most current therapy practices,” said Neila J. Donovan, an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and director of COR.....next

Family Doctor: Pick’s disease affects person’s ability to speak

By Peter Gott, M.D.

United Media

Posted Aug 29, 2009 @ 11:54 AM

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Q: My loved one has primary progressive aphasia. He cannot remember anyone’s name, including his own. All nouns are forgotten, and even 30 seconds after you remind him, he has forgotten again. This is a horrible disease.

A: Primary progressive aphasia (also known as frontotemporal dementia or Pick’s disease) is a rare neurological condition that affects a person’s ability next....

When speech is a problem after a stroke?

MRI scan of a healthy brain: Blockage of blood vessels appear as "bright spots" on certain types of MRI scans.

Photograph: Science Photo Library

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THOMAS LYNCH

MEN'S HEALTH MATTERS: There are a number of ways communication can be improved

Q My father has just had a stroke and is having difficulty talking to us and it appears he doesn’t understand what we say. This is very distressing both for my dad and our family and I wonder what can be done about it.

A It sounds like your father has aphasia which is a difficulty with language following a stroke. As you rightly say this can be very distressing and can often be very frustrating for a patient. Aphasia can affect expression (difficulty finding words and formulating sentences), understanding what you say (particularly longer sentences and complex questions), and sometimes reading and writing.

The speech and language therapist (SLT) in his hospital will assess his language skills, help you to find ways to communicate more easily, and will work through a communication treatment programme which will be aimed at improving his communication skills. The following is a list of tips you can employ to help communicate with him:

• Reduce background distractions.
• Gain his attention by touching his arm/say his name before starting to speak.
• Slow your own rate of speech when talking to him.
• Reduce sentence length.
• Stress key words.
• Talk about events and people familiar to him.
• Encourage all attempts at communication (speech, gestures, writing).
• Give him ample time to respond to you.
• Offer alternatives (eg, “do you want tea or coffee?”).
• Encourage description of an item if he can’t think of the word.
• Use yes/no questions if he is having severe difficulty (eg, is it in the room? is it something you eat?).

He may also have a speech problem: dysarthria, where his speech may sound slurred due to muscle weakness, or dyspraxia, where he may use the wrong sounds when speaking due to muscle inco-ordination.

The speech and language therapist will assess his speech and provide appropriate treatment. If speec.......next.....

Direct Contact - finally

The brain is like any other organ: when it is damaged a functional unit (like speech) will compensate by using surviving, but often less efficient, pathways to transmit the nerve impulses. And perhaps it may even develop some new pathways. One problem with brain injury is that neural tissue is probably the slowest to repair or regenerate of any in the body. Another problem is that brain functions are so incredibly complex with innumerable modulating interconnections that are built up over a lifetime of hearing, see..NEXT>>

Brain injury can affect ability to communicate

Brain injury can affect ability to communicate

Aphasia is always due to injury to the brain, most commonly from a stroke (about 25 to 40 percent of stroke survivors acquire aphasia). Brain injuries resulting in aphasia may also arise from head trauma, from brain tumors or from infections. The condition is determined by the location and size of the area of damage in the brain.

You can help

Improvement is a slow process that usually involves helping the individual and family understand the nature of aphasia and learning possible strategies for communicating.

Depression is a common side effect of a stroke. Watch carefully for signs and let the doctor know about these signs. Aphasics often want to stay by themselves.

Try to work with your loved one and include him or her in family activities. Taking the person out helps to socialize again.

Singing taps into right-brain stimulation and helps the left brain reorganize after a stroke. Sing songs such as "Happy Birthday," or recite rote things we knew as children, even the rosary. Also, give compliments such as, "you're getting better and better every day."

Suggestions for daily exercises include:

Speak in simple sentences and try to stick to one idea and one action. Spend time reading to your loved one or talking about your day.

Give the person with aphasia time to speak and do not finish the person's sentences unless asked. Praise any efforts the person makes to speak. Be sensitive to background noise and turn off competing sounds such as radios or TVs where possible.

Be open to means of communicating other than speech, such as drawings and gesturing.

Don't be alarmed if the person cries easily or laughs inappropriately. Impulse control is often affected by stroke but can get better.

For more resources

Call the Allied Health licensing board at 734-7406 for a list of speech/language pathologists who provide therapy for aphasics. The purpose of speech therapy is to help the patient to fully utilize remaining skills and to learn compensatory means of communication. A stroke support group is in the planning stages.

Renee Veksler is a Guam Memorial Hospital health educator and a community partner with the Get Healthy Guam Coalition. She may be contacted at 647-2350/1.

Wernicktionary

After discussing the devastating social consequences following a lesion in Wernicke’s area, I was motivated to delve deeper into the functions of this area. Present research has classified Wernicke’s aphasia as “an impairment of language comprehension and in speech that has a natural-sounding rhythm and a relatively normal syntax, but otherwise has not recognizable meaning.” Are researchers, therefore, claiming that there is no pattern or rhyme and reason to the speech produced by these patients? I have trouble fully believing such a statement when we are still so limited in our understanding of the inner workings of the mind. The example given in class was: “I called my mother on the television and did not understand the door. It was too breakfast, but they came from far to near. My mother is not too old for me to be young.” Although...