SPEECH LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY
Speech Language Pathology is a discipline of rehabilitation that is concerned with how well a person can communicate across all aspects of his/her life including home, school, work and social settings. Many times after a brain injury, verbal skills may seem to be unaffected, or gradually appear to return to “normal.” Because of this, people with brain injury and their families often have questions about why “speech therapy” is recommended when “speech” does not appear to be a problem. Many people do not realize that traumatic brain injury can have subtle effects on a person’s ability to communicate that may not be easily identified. When working with an individual with brain injury, speech-language pathologists are concerned with all methods and modes of communication. The following list provides an overview of several aspects of communication that are often focused on in speech-language rehabilitation.
Auditory Comprehension
This may make it difficult to:
Reading Comprehension Reading comprehension and recall of what has been read may also be affected after brain injury. It may be difficult to recall what has just been read and one may need to read information several times to understand and remember the main point. This may make it difficult to read:
Speaking After a brain injury, difficulty with speaking may be obvious or subtle. When people have difficulties with word retrieval and thought organization, they have a tendency to ramble. Unsure of if and when they have made their point, they continue to talk. This will take them away from the initial topic being discussed and result in inefficient communication. For other people, even coming up with ideas for things to talk about is challenging. Therefore, they may not initiate conversations with other people and appear quiet and reserved. For people who experience dysarthria, their speech may sound slurred and difficult to understand. Sometimes, these people are inaccurately judged as unintelligent, or even drunk.
This may make it difficult to: · make a clear point during conversation · express thoughts and feelings · maintain an active role in a conversation · maintain a positive self-image of oneself as a successful communicator
Writing Functional writing skills may also be affected by difficulty finding words, organizing and sequencing thoughts and ideas. Spelling and grammar may be also be affected as well as the motor skills necessary for holding a pen or pencil and forming letters.
Social reasoning refers to the spontaneous way in which we deal with social situations. A person needs to consider what is new or unique about a situation and adapt to it. Social reasoning is often affected by changes in thinking abilities because it depends so much on pulling together a large amount of information and making inferences that extend beyond the actual information at hand. Much of the most important information in a social exchange is subtle: facial expression, gesture or tone of voice. These subtle social cues often supply the real meaning in a social situation. If they are missed or misinterpreted, it can be socially punishing. Friends may not understand these changes and many times drift away. This may make it difficult to:
Damage to the frontal lobes often times result in deficits in executive functioning. The frontal lobes coordinate input from other parts of the brain to make decisions throughout the day. Many times people become overwhelmed if they have difficulties with skills such as planning, organizing, sequencing, managing time and revising a plan if things do not go according to the original plan.
Dysphagia is a term used to describe a variety of swallowing disorders. Safe swallowing requires the coordination of systems in the mouth and throat to keep the body healthy. Following a brain injury, there may be damage to the neurons, nerves, and/or muscles that are used for safe swallowing. This damage may cause swallowing difficulties that put a person at risk for aspiration of liquids or choking on foods.
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