Speech therapy after strokes is crucial!!

Strokes happen to thousands of people everyday in this country alone. Some are quite severe and others are so mild they can go almost unnoticed. Many do not even seek treatment for them because like mild heart attacks they have small symptoms.

A stroke most noticeably affects one side of the body or the other. It is often when outward symptoms like the inability to grasp an object or speak without slurring words that one seeks medical attention. Often these strokes ARE more severe. After visiting the emergency room, rehabilitation is usually necessary.

There are names for different types of strokes depending on the location where they happened. Aphasia is the result of the stroke; it is what you see following a stroke. It is a term to describe what has happened to a person cognitively, verbally, physically, etc. Strokes most often affect one part of the brain- a specific location- where cells that regulate certain functions live. For example, Brocca's aphasia, occurs in or around the motor cortex strip of the brain. It adversely affects speech by making it difficult to say sounds in words. Patients say the correct words in sentences most of the time. They may call a "dog" a "vog" for example or a "door" a "dort". Another type is called Wernicke's aphasia. It occurs within the portion of the brain where language learning and use occurs. With this type of stroke the patient can talk and talk and talk but you can not understand anything the person is saying. They misname items, also. Examples would be "Hang your door on the car (Hang your coat on the door)" or call a "purse" a "suitcase". Another type, the harshest of all strokes, is labeled Global aphasia. This type affects the whole brain or at least multiple locations and usually leaves a person unable to care for themself or communicate verbally and sometimes even nonverbally despite the best therapy in the world. It is the most devastating type. There are several other types, but these appear to be the most frequently occurring types.

Speech therapy immediately following a stroke should be rather intensive. As I stated in my last article, this period of time is know as "spontaneous recovery" and most progress is seen within six months post onset or after the stroke incident. Some patients recover quickly and only a week or two of therapy is needed. Others are so severe that months of therapy occur and frequently they have to be discontinued because they have slowed too much in their progress. Their brain has relearned all it can. This is why intensive therapy is needed. A part of the brain has been damaged and now the other parts need to learn what those parts did. New neural pathways need to be developed for a person to show improvement. This is why therapy following a stroke is critical.

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