Aphasia is a problem which occurs due to damage in the language centers of the affected person’s brain. This most frequently happens on the left side of the brain. There are several aphasia speech therapy activities. Also, aphasia happens due to a stroke, although it can be caused by other form of brain injury/damage, tumors and wounds. A few people with aphasia have difficulty producing speech (expressive language), while others have difficulty understanding what is being said to them (receptive language). In addition, some people with aphasia have problems in both the components of language. Read on to know more about aphasia speech therapy activities.

To start with, the main cause of aphasia should either be treated or stabilized. After achieving this, then only a therapist can carry on with rehabilitating the patient. If a person wants to recover his/her language function, then he or she should immediately begin undergoing aphasia speech therapy. This should be followed as soon as one meets with an injury or accident.

Aphasia Speech Therapy: A Treatment Approach

As there are no currently available medical or surgical procedures which can treat aphasia, the conditions associated with stroke or head injury can be improved via the treatment of speech therapy. The main emphasis for most aphasic patients is usually given on optimizing the use of the affected person’s retained language skills as well as ability to learn other ways of communication. The other communication abilities compensate for their lost language skills.

Therapy Activities

The type of speech therapy activities which can be used to correct and treat aphasia is carefully formulated. These depend on the speech therapist’s diagnosis and assessment of the affected individual. There are, however, some general and common activities which are used to treat the disorder. Here are a few such aphasia speech therapy activities.

Exercise

As most aphasia forms include sensory loss and weakness in the right-side of the affected person’s body, it is crucial for the patient to successfully exercise their body. To prevent further degeneration of the condition and strengthen the weak muscles, regular practice as well as exercise is required. It is not necessary that the exercise routine has to be exhilarating.

For a proper speech function, the speech therapist can simply exercise the affected individual’s weakened muscles by projecting facial expressions, such as frowning and smiling as well as repetitive speaking of specific words. Even the chewing food is useful as the affected individual is able to exercise his/her articulators required for speech and language production such as the jaw and tongue. These articulators can be weakened due to aphasia.

Picture Cards

One of the most common tools for aphasia speech therapy are the picture cards. These include pictures of everyday objects and daily living which can be successfully used to develop and improve word recall ability. These picture cards can be simply used as visual cues to enhance the learning process. Also, these cards can help to increase the vocabulary of the affected individual.

The affected individual is able to practice vocalization and exercise weak muscles by looking at these picture cards and repetitively saying aloud the names of the objects in them.

Picture Boards

One more popular tool for aphasia speech therapy is picture boards. Use of these kind of tool can help the patient to recall the names of people, objects and activities, as this condition makes it difficult for the patient to recall these names. The therapist can use a board to place pictures of different everyday objects and activities and ask the affected individual to point to a specific picture. They can then express their own ideas and communicate with others.