How to recover speech after a stroke: exercises and recommendations

Over a period of time after a stroke, the patient experiences difficulty with speech. But for the fullness of the perception of the world around us, as well as the health of the psyche, the return of the skills of verbal communication is the leading problem. Restore the ability to speak should be as soon as possible.

Some patients undergo a rehabilitation period at a very rapid rate. They are missing a few months and even weeks. Others need a long work with a speech therapist, so that through regular classes they return to them the ability to communicate with others. It happens that speech is not fully restored and remains limited.

How to restore speech after a stroke? What do we have to do? Answers to the questions will be given in this article.

How to recover speech after a stroke?

It should be noted that such a process is not simple. Modern medicine in this direction is widely used stem cells. In addition, the recovery of nerve impulses is carried out with a speech therapist.

Application of stem cells

Is it possible to restore speech after a stroke by means of stem cells? Modern medicine proves that with such therapy the body receives additional mental strength, a person increases the desire for recovery, the mood improves. The maximum effectiveness this method has if it was applied in the first days after the stroke happened.

How to restore speech after a stroke by stem cells? This procedure is carried out with outpatient treatment. Two procedures are required between which there should be a three-month rest. Treatment begins with the restoration of blood vessels. Procedures are carried out to eliminate ischemia, atherosclerosis and thrombosis, spasms are eliminated.

Vessels acquire elasticity, the thickness of their walls and the channel are optimized. In those areas where the vessel was clogged and torn, new collateral pathways begin to form.

Speech after a stroke

The timing of restoration of the speech function is closely related to the area of lesion of nerve cells in the cerebral cortex, which are responsible for speech. The more extensive the damage to the brain, the slower the restoration of the ability to speak. If there is still hope for a year to return the lost speech, then the pace of rehabilitation slows down over time.

The body of a person who has suffered a stroke gradually adapts to the remaining defects in speech. Therefore, people around should be understanding. In no case should you not allow the patient to become isolated in himself and be isolated from people. To restore the lost function, a person should communicate more, take part in various discussions, perform exercises of a simple nature.

Types of speech disorders after a stroke

Any type of speech disturbance after a stroke can be gradually eliminated. To rehabilitate successfully and quickly, it is necessary to understand the specificity of the defect and choose the correct method of treatment. There are violations such as sensory and motor aphasia.

With motor aphasia, speech is perceived by the patient on hearing and even understandable to him. However, it is a huge difficulty for a person to pronounce words independently or formulate thoughts. The patient hardly reads and writes. Most often, these functions are completely lost.

What is sensory aphasia? The patient can mutter something incoherent, speech is not subject to its control. The skill of reading is not lost, but for the patient the meaning of the written is incomprehensible. The ability to write words is completely absent.

As a result of the patient's stroke, the patient's speech is confused. When speaking, he gesticulates intensely, includes expressive facial expressions and a variety of different intonations. A person tries to formulate his thoughts, but this does not work for him, since the correct pronunciation and selection of necessary words is lost. A patient can be aggressive, often crying. His condition is nervous. After a stroke, an adequate perception of the surrounding world is lost.

How is the restoration of speech?

How to restore speech after an ischemic stroke? After stabilization of the patient's condition, doctors are advised to immediately start activities that help restore the skills of speaking. To speed the rehabilitation was fast, a professional speech therapist should work with the patient, but the psychological support of native people is also extremely important.

How to recover speech after a stroke? Exercises designed specifically for this purpose are widely used by speech therapists. The specialist's work is based on a phased return of the lost function through various tasks: working with cards, unfolding a children's lotto, pronouncing words by syllables and completely. The doctor can teach the patient to compensate for the lack of verbal expression by gestures.

Classes can not be suspended even if the desired effect is not achieved for a long time. Sooner or later, the persistent efforts of the doctor and patient will give their results.

Basic recommendations for conducting exercises

How to recover after a stroke of moderate severity? Recommendations on how to conduct exercises to restore it, are clear. The main purpose of the exercises is to make the cells located in the affected area of the brain perform the lost functions. This is achieved through constant training. The patient needs to hear a living speech. You should always communicate with him. This will help him begin to reproduce sounds.

As for the pronunciation of whole words, in the case of a complete lack of speaking skill, the patient is encouraged to pronounce individual sounds and syllables. For this purpose, a person is told part of a word or phrase. In this case, the endings do not agree. The patient must say them himself.

Singing has a beneficial effect on the development of the ability to reproduce words. If you sing to the patient and invite him to sing along, then he will restore the speech much quicker. This method is characterized by a high level of efficiency.

It is very important to restore the ability to pronounce sounds. Perhaps a person is able to talk, but due to a strong violation of the innervation of mimic and chewing muscles, their congealing takes place.

Exercises for muscle development

How to recover speech after a stroke? Mandatory development of facial muscles is required.

The patient is offered:

• Put your lips in a tube;
• Bared teeth;
• Maximize the language forward;
• Slightly bite the upper or lower lip with the jaws;
• Lick your lips in both directions.

The work of a speech therapist

After the examination of the patient and the type of aphasia is determined, the speech therapist should be started immediately. It should be noted that a third of the people who suffered a stroke, at the time of discharge from the hospital speech is fully restored. Of course, this is possible if the hospital has a speech therapist, who conducts classes with the patient from the first week of his illness.

What is speech therapy?

Speech therapy is a science that deals with the study of speech disorders, the development of ways to overcome and prevent them, and methods of corrective work. Patients who, even after classes with a doctor, are discharged with a severe speech disorder, can follow up with shortcomings and start working with subsequent work carried out with regularity.

Methods used by speech therapists

From the very beginning, the speech therapist "defrosts" the disturbed speech functions on the basis of previous stereotypes. The doctor checks the patient's reaction to weak stimuli, for example, muffled speaking. The work is built about the principle of increasing the level of tasks from light to complex.

This takes into account the important nuance that the selection of exercises is carried out individually, taking into account the degree of damage to the patient's speech apparatus . A type of aphasia is also taken into account.

For one person it will be easy to name objects, for another - to maintain a dialogue, etc. But one can not always give easy tasks. Their complexity must grow steadily.

The first lesson should not become burdensome for the patient. At the beginning of rehabilitation, the use of material that has emotional significance for the patient is recommended. Also, the corresponding semantic load is selected.

What can not be offered at the initial stages of treatment?

Carrying out the initial stages of treatment is of great importance. It is not recommended to suggest working out individual words outside the context and connecting sounds. To restore speech, a speech therapist should create all the conditions for the patient to support the conversation as soon as possible.

The use of singing

After a stroke, singing will help to restore the speech faster. Occupations of speech therapist with the inclusion of music elements give positive results. If the patient finds it difficult to finish the sentence, which the speech therapist began, then you can offer listening and singing your favorite songs. It is necessary to find out which songs love and knows the patient. In the process of singing, words are first pronounced patiently indistinctly. Gradually, their pronunciation improves. Such a task should proceed in a positive atmosphere. It brings pleasure to the patient.

Immediately after the patient can pronounce the words, he should be interested in independent studies. For example, invite him to insert in the sentences of missed letters or prepositions.

What methods are used for people with sensory aphasia?

For people with sensory aphasia, visual materials are used. The patient is shown a picture, which is suggested to be copied, if it allows his state to be made. Then the word symbolizing the image is called. All actions that are carried out by a speech therapist are accompanied by benevolent calm comments: "Let's fix the pillow", "Raise up your head, please," "Now you can put your head on the pillow." So you can restore speech after a stroke in the presence of sensory aphasia.

Patients with a similar disorder do not distinguish between sounds that are close in sound. A suitable exercise is the use of drawings. The patient should show the named subject. For example, you choose such pairs of consonant words as "tom-house", "dot-kidney", etc.

Length of lessons

The length of the sessions and the intervals between them depend on the individual capabilities of the patient. The average is 7-15 minutes. After two months, exercise can be done within half an hour. It is also necessary to keep under control the load of the patient's speech and hearing aids.

The room should be quiet, the radio or TV should not be turned on.

The help of the speech therapist at the late stages

If the speech therapist's help was not provided in the first weeks of the disease, then the speech disorders are resistant. And in this case it is possible to restore the lost function, but the aphasiologist who has his own methods should work with the patient.

Support for a person who has suffered a stroke

It is very important to maintain optimism in the patient. The hospital staff, the patient's relatives and the speech therapist should not make the person feel that he is disabled. Otherwise, the person closes in himself and will take the disease as a sentence. After a stroke, the emotional susceptibility of patients is too high. Laskovoe treatment will in this case be the best assistant in the restoration of lost ability to speak.

Is it possible to conduct independent studies under the guidance of close people?

How to recover speech after a stroke at home? Relatives can only conduct their own activities with the permission of a doctor. It is important not to overdo it. Do not overload the patient unnecessarily or give him an impossible task.

Relatives often do not have the patience, and they want to achieve the desired result in a short time. Small success in recovery causes them disappointment, which is expressed in facial expressions and gestures. The patient, catching such a reaction of loved ones, loses optimism and subsequently can refuse treatment. Therefore, in the classes with a speech therapist, the patient's relatives are not present.

Important notes

To restore speech and memory after a stroke, it is recommended to persistently force the patient to pronounce the names of surrounding objects. It is proved that patients better memorize objects than actions.

When dealing with a person who has suffered a stroke, it is important to take into account that during a parallel conversation between several people, patients have a poor understanding of sounds and words.

Those who suffered a stroke, you can not watch TV for more than 2 hours a day. It should be selected only quiet interesting programs. For example, sports fans will encourage sports commentaries, which will have an impact on the restoration of speech.

Folk remedies

Can people recover after a stroke? The tried method used by the people is the use of chopped thin slices or grated black radish. It should be kept in the mouth. At the same time in the oral cavity there is a feeling of burning and tingling. Also from the radish is a compress. It is applied to the damaged facial nerve.

Conclusion

The article examined how to restore speech after a stroke. This process is long and painstaking. It requires the diligence of both the patient and the doctor. Patience, support of close people, calm mood and strict adherence to the doctor's recommendations will help the sick person to cope with the disease.