Speech and language problems after a brain injury
Speech problems after a Stroke, Head Injury, Brain Tumour or Parkinson's Disease Diagnosis
After the diagnosis of a Stroke, Brain Tumour, a Head injury, Parkinson's or Motor Neurone disease some people may experience some of the following communication problems.
Common communication problems include:
- Difficulty finding the right words to say.
- Saying the wrong words.
- Making sound errors in words.
- Words "not coming out".
- Limited sentence length and content.
- Being unable to speak clearly.
- Sounding slurred.
- Difficulty understanding people.
- Difficulty keeping up with conversation.
- Difficulty talking in groups.
- Difficulty interjecting quickly enough.
- Difficulty on the telephone.
- Poor volume and difficulty projecting your voice.
- Reduced social confidence.
- Difficulty writing.
- Difficulty reading.
- Memory problems.
- Changes in personality.
- Difficulty concentrating or paying attention.
- Diffulty processing.
- Feeling overwhelmed by everyday tasks.
How can we help......
We will provide you with highly experienced, expert care and treatment of your condition. Firstly to establish what form of communication disorder you may have and then provide you with the appropriate support and treatment plan.
There are several communication disorders that you may be diagnosed with.
For example:
Aphasia
Dysarthria
Cognitive Communication Disorder.
Further information on these conditions is available on this website.
Aphasia: A speech and Language problem that can result from a Stroke, Head Injury, Brain Tumour or neurological disease.
Aphasia is a neurological language disorder that can result from an injury to the brain, possibly from a Stroke, a Head Injury, Brain Tumour or a neurological disease. People with aphasia have difficulty expressing themselves through speech. They may have problems finding the words they want to say, they may words they don't mean, make sound errors in words, and have reduced meaningful content to their sentences. This is known as expressive aphasia.
In combination or in isolation, they may have problems understanding other people’s speech, which is known as receptive aphasia. When this is mild social/contextual language can be understood, but deeper, more complex language is lost. When severe, even basic commands are not understood.
Aphasia is a very challenging condition to live with and it is imperative that people receive the treatment and support they need to maximise their communicative ability and quality of life. Whether it be mild where people are struggling to find words occasionally, or severe where even communicating basic needs are affected, with the right support and treatment communicative confidence and ability can be improved. The impact of even an apparent mild difficutly cannot be underestimated.
Lisa is on the Advisory Committee for Aphasia at The Stroke Association. She is very happy to organise talks, or training workshops for those working with aphasia or for people in the community.
Dysarthria
Dysarthria effects how speech actually sounds. It may sound slurred due to a weakness of your tongue or lips causing reduced precision of your speech movements. Here your language content is good, the words are all there and your sentences are full, but speech can sound less intelligible.
Speech therapy is required to help maximise your intelligibility and maintain confidence in communication. People can feel worried about talking on the telephone, talking in their local community, or even being understood by friends and loved ones.
Early intervention with progressive neurological conditions is important for establishing and maintaining the physical elements required for speech and providing the support necessary.
Conditions that can cause Dysarthria
Head Injury
Brain tumour
Parkinson's Disease
Motor Neurone Disease
Stroke
Multiple sclerosis