Speech Therapy After a Brain Injury
Those who suffer from traumatic brain injuries can face a multitude of problems, affecting many different parts of their bodies and areas of their lives. The recovery process can require a variety of physical and occupational therapy solutions. In many cases, after a brain injury, speech therapy will also be required. Sometimes the injuries will impact the physical ability to form words. In other cases, they might impact the ability to turn thoughts into words or string words into sentences.
In either case, Comprehensive Rehab has speech therapists on site to assist in our clients’ recovery.
What causes speech disorders after a brain injury?
Dysarthria, Dysphagia and Apraxia
Traumatic brain injuries can affect the ability to physically form words either by causing the muscles around the mouth to weaken or affecting the brain’s ability to communicate with the muscles around the mouth. The first is dysarthria; the second is apraxia.
Dysarthria can affect speech in a variety of ways. The weakened muscles could produce difficulty with tongue and lip movements and cause speech to be slurred, nasal sounding or hoarse and also might affect the volume and volume of speech.
Dysphagia is a related condition in which the weakened muscles make it difficult to swallow.
This can be caused by not only a brain injury but also a variety of neurological issues, ranging from Parkinson’s Disease or a stroke to a brain tumor.
Speech therapy can help treat dysarthria in many cases through exercises designed to either strengthen the affected muscles or improve speech by adjusting speech rate and improving articulation.
In apraxia, the symptoms range from sounds being distorted or making inconsistent mistakes while speaking to causing the person to grope for the right sound, perhaps needing to say a word multiple times to get it right. In severe cases, they might lose the ability to communicate by speech.
Frequent, one-on-one speech therapy sessions and repetitive speech exercises are among the treatments for apraxia.
Aphasia
Another potential effect of a brain injury is damage to the portion of the brain that is responsible for language.
In some cases, people with aphasia may be prone to saying the wrong word or even made-up words. In other cases, they may have trouble stringing together full sentences.
Other neurological issues such as strokes can also cause aphasia.
Speech therapy for aphasia patients aims to get patients to make the most of their remaining language abilities. In severe cases, like with apraxia, this might also involve helping them learn alternative means of communication.
Turn to Comprehensive Rehab
If you are in need of speech therapy after a brain injury, call Comprehensive Rehab. We have convenient hours at our Clinton and Maquoketa locations.
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