Types of Speech issues.

The white matter that is affected is normally the same,

1. irritability - due to loss of independence,
2. lack of muscle tone in one side or both hemisphers of the brain,
3. speech rapidly diminishes when tired (As can reading, eye site etc)

When the brain communicates to itself a myriad of things happen, you digest information through your eyes, and senses in general, you collate this and apply it to the subject at hand and you then vocalise your current thoughts. When however your brain isnt' on speaking terms with itself and must commucate via rerouted brain neurons - you will be slower.

You Will Be Slower.

This will frustrate the crap out of you, and you can do nothing about it. I'm at month four, and took up a work experience experiment to see if I could handle telliemarketing to solve my financial issues - not great money but better than the dole.

Couldn't pull it off. Their 14 phone calls an hour where in my new reality 5. I was taking up a chair in an office that some one who could do the job should be sitting in.

There is this thing call aphasia, it's a general speech disorder. Picture the brain with highways, and each one now has road works. Your loved one is sitting in traffic getting really ducked off, and is sitting in a perfectly good car, but can't do a darn thing about it.

The best exercises I found - ask the patient random questions for them to articulate various parts of their brain at once e.g.: If you are at a sale, and the jacket you need is $25 but today it's on sale less 25% - how much do you buy the jacket for?

This allows them to process the question, use their maths (my maths and spelling departed company on surgery) allows them to stall for time but it's easy enough for anyone over the age of ten to work out. Plus your using the trick of making it first person and allowing that first person to purchase with make believe money when that person probably hadn't been shopping for months as has no money - so the question appeals on many levels and the patient will want to answer it. Keeping questions positive is huge.

Also ask them to recall and name as many animals as they can in under a minute and write them down, do there are no double ups. Same with colours etc.

Then ask them to write down things you say, like the cliff notes on a story you have just read to them. So you can get comprehension down and memory working as well. Make your story under 2 minutes. Then ask them four or five facts, and help out with clues.

Get the pathways working and realigned. At week 2 I plateaued for months, but the above helped.

Naturally there are other sites that you can purchase books from so research reading out loud techniques and manuals. Purchase a Dictaphone, so it can record meetings at WINZ and at the Doctors, and later they can practice talking into it. Least we forget.

http://www.brainline.org/content/2013/08/communicating-a-way-forward-aphasia-recovery-at-dalhousie-universitys-interact.html

Learn a new instrument, sing and fall in love with something refreshing that gives you joy, this will improve the brian functions, cognitive functions, confidence and give you inspiration.