Speech Therapy
 

Okay, so I'll probably be doing speech therapy sometime in the near future. I got an appointment with the Nevada Community Enrichment Program, which is basically a program that helps people with brain injuries. They have different types of therapies and one of them is speech therapy.

What I struggle with the most is putting my thoughts into words. It's like, I know what to say but I can't form the sentences and find the right way to say it. Will speech therapy be able to help me? I'm nine months into my recovery...does that really matter? Will I still benefit from it?

I just don't want to waste my time.

Nick

Hi nick. Excuse typos.im on my phone. I too was just prescribed speech therapy. Im on a waiting list right now. Im nine months into this nightmare. Ive heard its good to go to. I think any treatment, if offered is good. Id say try it and see if it helps. I wouldnt turn it down. If I get in ill let you know. I have to make this short. Day six on migraine. I have.an appt tomorrow. I pray for relief soon.

Thanks, I hope you get your migraine resolved.

Nick

You will likely find it helpful, I know I did. Speech therapy is a lot more than the name implies, it is really therapy to help resore cognative functions, some may be related to speech, and some may not be. I didn't have any real "speech" problems after my TBI, my deficits were in memory, executive functions and such, and the speech therapy helped a lot.

That's cool...I wonder why none of the doctors I've seen ever recommended it. I always tell them I have trouble speaking and putting thoughts into words. All of my symptoms are cognitive deficits...and I've told them that. I guess they just don't care?

I have also been recommended to take speach therapy for the same reasons you mentioned. I was told by my physical therapist it would be good. Dr isnt sure and is having my hearing tested and also a three hour cognative test. I am hoping they will admit me into Brain Injury program at hospital by me. Its like pulling teeth with these drs to agree to do anything but give you time.

Nick, my son responded so fast to "speech therapy" that his therapist wanted to take a few weeks off to see if waiting longer than a week between appointments makes a difference. They mostly did word memory, alphabetizing, and pattern type puzzles. Goal was to increase time of 'working' without increasing symptoms.

What I have noticed with him is when he is having a better cognitive day, he has more physical and emotional symptoms. It's a very fine balancing act that we haven't mastered yet.

I'm sure you'll see some improvement!

I also benefitted a great deal from speech therapy. I think you will too Nick.

At one point my speech therapist and my neurologist both decided I was at about an "average" functioning level - but that scared me a great deal because I still felt very disabled. I think that's when they both realized that I was "higher functioning" before the injury I sustained. I didn't know how to word it before then or even that I should have - I always called myself "bright" which was what my dad always referred to me as. That's about the time I realized that they didn't know who I was before the injury and that's why practitioners have trouble recognizing a brain injury in people they don't know before the person's injury. *I* know who I was and what I expect of myself and people who knew before the injury knew what my functioning level was too - but people who didn't know me have no idea!

So, make sure you try to keep communicating with your speech therapist what issues you're having are. Even if you don't know the exact clinical words for the issues, just explain what you're having trouble with, give examples, and they should be able to figure out what they are. Like I used to say the wrong words a lot for things. I still do it, I did it last night, I called the couch a shelf, but I don't do it as much as I did before the speech therapy.

Anyway, fast forward a bit and I was showing a lot more cognitive improvement - I was clearly "above average" at this point in my recovery and my therapist started giving me tests and I was scoring below average on them which was contradictory to my apparent level of intelligence so we worked on those areas - one that comes quickly to mind is "word finding". I had a lot of trouble thinking of words to say even though I did know them! And I never had issues like that before the injury. It was weird because I still didn't even realize how poorly I was doing and I thought I would do great on the tests because that's how I was for 33 years before the injury but then when I did them I didn't do as well as I thought I would! She and I worked on that and it became easier for me to think of what words I was trying to say.

She gave me really good homework too.

When she and I was working on "word finding", she told me to do crosswords at home. I still do them and since I'm still improving I'm doing better at them than I was when I first started.

We worked on a lot of different things, but I can't remember them all right now. But I definitely think speech therapy can help you a great deal and I'm really glad you're going.

Nick, again me, again the negative (sorry).

I went to speech therapy testing, and they told me I speak well. I also cannot find words in my head and get them out. I did however, my college study, study English. Yes, I can speak english, however my level and word finding isn't what it was, but I was basically told that others are far worse than I am. So, even if I suffer with problems (and I write better than I speak), there are people who cannot speak sentences.

I doubt you cannot speak in sentences, but I bet you cannot get the right word in your sentence. You will probably be very bored with speech therapy. What can they teach you? I'd bet your vocabulary even stunted, is better than they have (based on your typing skills).

Okay, start hating me now. I have been there though.

You know, I have always tried to learn another language (French) and I cannot even count to 3, and I have studied in random for 20 years. (lol, I do remember my german to ten).

My writing is MUCH better than my speech. When you write, you can take your time to get it right. I think speech is different because it involves spontaneity. That, is a huge problem for me nowaday...and even if I know how I feel and what I want to say, when I go to say it my thought process halts. Then, something comes out wrong or doesn't come out at all.

I can make myself seem very intelligent by my writing skills alone. It would be hard for anyone to think that I'm struggling with anything by reading my posts. I hope I never lose that skill.

Anyways, it's hard to explain...and don't worry about being negative. I don't think you were being negative anyways. You were just giving me your honest opinion.

Nick

Nick, you are in my world.

In The Neighborhood ...
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by July63 (Post 866423) Nick, you are in my world.

... Yep! Same here, Guys.

And at ~ 4 yrs. post-collision. :(

Theta,

How are you doing?

Same ol' same ol' ?

Nick and others,

Speech therapy is not just about speaking. They use it to diagnose dysfunctions in the brain. They also use speaking tasks to exercise specific parts of the brain. They often teach techniques for overcoming many of the concussion dysfunctions. I saw a speech therapist but I was already doing all of the techniques she expected to teach me. In fact, I had learned tricks that she had never heard of.

It is worth a try.

Hi, Mark -

Thanks for asking.
I was doing better last year; this year not so well.
(Hey, 1 out of 4 yrs.)

Unlike most here, I've been dealing with this all along entirely on my own, alone/solo. No surviving family, and no longtime-community of friends "Down Here", no supportive network.

And as we've spoken of before, I know that you know the general consciousness 'Down Here', as well as the medical/health care community here is not 'progressive'.
I've given up.

I'll PM you, Mark, about my choosing now, instead, to go next month to Georgia, to do a rigorous 10-day insight meditation training (10-days silent), *free*, and *no co$t* simple (zen-like) room&board on-site.

It is my hope/intention to learn a way/a tool to work-with-my- mind, simply as it is, however I am.

This seems truly my only hope and best option, for me, in my own post-TBI "disparate circumstances". :o'

Best wishes,
Theta
__________________________________________________ __________________________
Rear-ended/totalled-MVC, 2008, closed-head trauma/TBI/PCS... still struggling with vertigo, head pain, loss of cognitive executive function ... etc etc.

Hi Nick,

I got into speech therapy after waiting over a year. We are working on short term memory issues and deductive reasoning puzzles. I find it's useful in two ways. One way is I get out of the house and secondly my therapist is very knowledgable on the topics and I find she can educate me when I have a question. I hope you get in soon.

ThetaZ,

I am about 3 and a half years and tried so many things and didn't have much success any of it. Neurofeedback, Cranio sacral, Myofascial pain release helped only temporarily. Xanax helps some what so I am also at the point I have to do something else. Like train my brain to handle the symptoms.

Keep posted about meditation training and really intrigued. I know some people with TBI went all the way to Himalayas after tried everything and get into deep meditation and came back fine.

I can't travel that far and if something available here especially in East Coast I sure give it a try. Do they accept TBI/PCS sufferers or open for everyone?

Going to start a New Thread re: experience with insight meditation training, PCS.
 

pcslife,

Thanks so much for your post/reply/shared interest.
Much appreciation. :winky:

In the interest of respectfully not 'diverting' or 'highjacking' this/Nick's thread ... I will promise to *soon* start/post a whole new one on the TBI/PCS forum. (I did start a thread earlier this a.m. on the "General Mental Health & Wellbeing" forum, or whatever it's called --- I myself just learned of it on NT from another poster!)

Nice to make acquaintance here 'In the Neighborhood', pcslife, and SpaceCadet, et al ! ;)

Respectfully yours,
Theta ;)

New Thread started re: meditation training for technique to cope with "It All"
 

Hey there, nick, pcslife, July63, et al,

A small success today, yay!
I did manage to start a new thread! :winky:

Theta

Cool by you, pcslife, to 'bump' this your post, to new thread?
 

pcslife,

How cool. I just read your "About Me", and your signature.
Clearly i, you, he/she/we-whoever, are onto something of that which we seek, in all this.

Is it okay with you if I copy your post above to the new threads I've started? I didn't want to do that without clearing first with you.
I so appreciate the quality of NeuroTalk, and the high degree of respectfulness in the forums here.

Thanks,
Theta