Communication Impairment: The Effects of Stroke
As soon as possible after a stroke, it’s important to seek services to help improve communication. Otherwise, the effects of a stroke can be long lasting and have a significant impact on function and independence.
Aphasia, a language disorder that challenges your ability to effectively communicate, often affects those who have suffered a stroke on the left side of the brain.
Communication Impairment: The Effects of Stroke
Aphasia affects speech and language, and it can make it hard to understand the sometimes fragmented or incomplete thoughts and words coming from a person who has had a stroke. This difficulty in communication can make the person with aphasia feel frustrated, angry, and misunderstood.
Isolation can often stem from these feelings. This happens because they have not lost any of their mental intelligence or acuity, only the ability to communicate their thoughts and / or understand your words.
Signs of Aphasia
There are several types of aphasia that can cause various symptoms. Signs of aphasia may include:
- Difficulty forming complete sentences
- Omitting connecting words in sentences
- Forming sentences that don’t make sense
- Inability to follow simple directions
- Saying words that are unintelligible
- Trouble understanding words and / or sentences
- Using the wrong words
Hope for Post-Stroke Communication
At Adult Speech Therapy Services, we create customized treatment plans for stroke survivors to help them regain their ability to communicate through speech, writing, listening, and reading. This is our passion and our mission.
Communication deficits can be improved through a variety of exercises that target the location in the brain that is in need of repair. Call us today at 301-323-8486 or request a virtual telehealth appointment now to get your loved one started with us to improve their communication. The acute effects of a stroke don’t have to impact your loved one permanently if they receive quality speech therapy services that support the brain’s healing process!