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