Aphasia and Stroke Rehabilitation

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Aphasia is a term used to describe language difficulties following a stroke or traumatic brain injury. Aphasia can affect the ability to talk, read, write, and understand language.  The severity of aphasia depends on how your stroke or brain injury has affected parts of your brain.Individuals experiencing aphasia often report “tip of the tongue” phenomenon where they know what they want to say but have difficulty getting the words out. 

• Difficulty finding words
• Speaking in single words or phrases
• Leaving out smaller words when speaking (e.g., the, of, was)
• Substituting sounds or words (e.g., “chair” for ‘table’ or “feletone” for ‘telephone’)
• Making up words

• Difficulty understanding what others are saying in conversation
• Trouble answering questions
• Requiring extra time to understand
• Answering unreliably to yes/no questions
• Trouble understanding complex sentences

• Difficulty reading single words or sentences
• Having difficulty recognizing some words by sight
• Having the inability to sound out words

• Difficulty writing letters, words, or sentences
• Difficulty spelling words
• Writing sentences with incorrect grammar

Apraxia is characterized by knowing what  to say but having difficulty moving your lips, jaw and tongue into the correct positions required to make speech sounds. Apraxia occurs when messages from the brain to the mouth are disrupted. Treatment includes oral motor exercises, speech sound repetition as well as mouth movement and pacing exercises.

Dysarthria characterized by slurred or slow speech. Treatment plans must take into consideration the cause and severity of the disorder , establishing goals and strategies that will improve communication abilities.

We encourage the participation of family members and caregivers during treatment sessions, as their support is integral to our clients’ success.