01 Mar Stroke Recovery Speech Therapy
The brain is a complex organ that controls our vision, our movement and even our thinking. After a stroke, an event that effects the brain, people may need the expertise of a Speech-Language Pathologist, also known as a speech therapist, to address deficits with speaking, swallowing, and/or thinking. Speech therapists have earned a Master’s degree, passed a national examination, and can diagnose and treat speech, language, communication, cognitive, and swallowing disorders in adults.
Depending on the side of the brain where a stroke occurs, behaviors and limitations with speech can be affected. For example, if your stroke occurs on the LEFT side of the brain, you may experience a behavior change where you become slow and cautious. However, if the stroke occurs on the RIGHT side of the brain, you may become quick and inquisitive with your behavior. A Speech-Language Pathologist can help you recover from these behaviors and promote the return to your typical behavior patterns. In addition, stroke recovery speech therapy can help with the following deficits, which are further explained in the chart below.
Speech therapy to treat stroke and dysarthria (slurred speech), at Trio Rehab, begins with exercises to strengthen muscles of the mouth. Examples of these exercises include diaphragmatic breathing, puckering of the lips and blowing air to make the cheeks puff out. To see visual diagrams of these exercises and more, click here.
Another important area addressed through stroke recovery speech therapy is with higher level thinking; also known as “cognitive status” or “executive functioning ability.” Standardized assessments are often used to assess cognitive status, as well as the actual performance of activity requiring executive functioning skills (attention, memory, recall, etc.). An example of these activities includes cooking a meal for two, and having all the food served simultaneously. This task, a typical everyday activity, may cause so much distress in a person with a cognitive deficit that they verbally lash out in frustration or completely shut down.
Trio Rehab’s stroke recovery speech therapy program uses Cognitive-Communication Checklist for Acquired Brain Injury (CCCABI), developed by Speech-Language Pathologist, Sheila MacDonald, to assist stroke survivors in reporting cognitive changes.
At Trio Rehab, our role as stroke recovery speech therapy providers, is to support and correct obvious, and not so obvious signs of a speech, swallowing, and thinking deficit. Should you find you are in need of a Speech-Language Pathologist, please visit asha.org or give us call.