Speech recovery after a stroke

A stroke is an unpleasant and very dangerous disease that must be treated. Often patients after a stroke completely lose their speech. Doctors call this phenomenon “aphasia”. And if the victim does not begin to engage in the restoration of speech in time, then she will never return to him. We will talk about how to restore speech after a stroke.

What is aphasia, its types

Aphasia is the complete or partial loss of the patient's speech function. It is caused by disturbances in the blood supply to the brain. Moreover, the patient loses speech immediately after the attack. Therefore, the patient's relatives should pay attention to the state of health of the victim, and engage in the restoration of the patient's speech after a stroke. If this is not done, then the patient's speech will no longer be restored.

Depending on the localization of the pathological process, aphasia is divided into:

• Motor. With it, the patient develops disorders in the motor part of the brain. Moreover, in people working with the right hand, the left hemisphere of the brain suffers, and in left-handed people, the right. At the same time, the patient cannot pronounce individual words, make sentences from them. He understands the speech addressed to him, but he is not able to answer it.
• Sensory. In the brain of each person there is a part responsible for sensory speech. Thanks to her, a person perceives all expressions addressed to him. It is located in the posterior gyrus of the brain, in the upper part of the dominant hemisphere. But in general, its location depends on which hand a person is leading. With such a violation, the patient can perceive someone else's speech, but he cannot use speech options.
• Semantic. When it affects the area located between the temporal, frontal, parietal lobes. A person with such disorders cannot grammatically construct a sentence, identify differences between the phrases used. The speech of such a patient is restored, but the recovery period lasts a very long time. And his relatives will need a lot of strength and patience. They will help the victim to restore speech.
• Amnestic. Such people use only spontaneous speech in dialogues. At the same time, a person cannot name a familiar object; he does not remember the names of previously familiar objects, things.
• Total. This is the most severe type of pathology. With it, the patient completely loses the ability to speak. He does not understand the speech of the people around him. This pathology occurs with a massive stroke. Recovering from such an illness is incredibly difficult.

Remember: the victim should not self-diagnose. This can only be done by a specialist.

How is the patient recovering?

In the early period of rehabilitation, the patient is prescribed:

• medications;
• massage;
• visiting a speech pathologist.

Remember: in a medical institution they only give recommendations on how to restore speech after a stroke. All rehabilitation of the victim takes place at home.

What medicines are used

Patients who have had a stroke are usually prescribed drugs that reduce the lesion and improve the nutrition of the nervous tissue. Use:

• nootropics. They improve regeneration, restore the functions of brain cells;
• antihypertensive drugs. They help lower blood pressure;
• blood thinners. They reduce blood viscosity, improve cerebral circulation;
• diuretics. They relieve swelling from the brain tissue.

The patient is also given:

• "Gliatilin".
• "Ceraxon".
• "Actovegin".
• Mexidol.

Remember: medicines are selected only by the attending physician. He will also be able to answer the relatives of the victim of the disease on the question of how to teach to speak after a stroke.

Visiting a speech pathologist

After what happened, initially relatives should show the person who had a stroke to a speech therapist. This is required to be done 1 week after the attack. But you need to see a doctor only if the patient's health condition is stabilized.

Initially, a speech therapist can come to the patient at home.

Later, the patient himself can come to the doctor's office.

At the last stage, the patient is placed in a special group. There he works with other patients on a special technique for restoring speech after a stroke.  

If the patient is in serious condition, then the speech therapist will have to show him 2 months after the attack. He will also be able to tell the patient's relatives about how to return speech after a stroke.

What does a specialist do? He:

• Gets acquainted with the victim, checks his reaction to different sounds. During the diagnosis, the doctor raises his voice or switches to a whisper.
• Gives the patient different tasks, gradually increasing their complexity.
• Teaches the victim to catch sounds in context, to understand their meaning.
• Talks with the patient on fascinating, interesting topics.
• Says different phrases, and the patient tries to finish them. Moreover, some patients also respond well to songs, and gradually even sing along to the physician.

Typically, a physician performs the following exercises with a patient to restore speech after a stroke. He uses:

1. phonetic exercises. They restore innervation, control the work of facial muscles, i.e. lips and tongue. For example, a doctor can make a certain sound, and the patient needs to repeat it after him. This sound can be labial, hissing. Moreover, to restore speech, not only individual sounds are used, but also tongue twisters used after a stroke. At first, they seem difficult to the patient, but later he gets used to them, does not experience difficulty in pronouncing them.
2. semantic exercises. During their implementation, the patient has to turn on active thinking, find new meanings in the situations proposed by the physician. For example, he must complete a sentence or an associative series. And the doctor can also involve the patient in a dialogue, talk with him on some abstract topic.
3. Creative exercises. Music classes are held with the patient, in which he actively sings, engages in art therapy.

But in order for the therapy to give a positive result, the physician should take into account the following simple rules.

He:

• should not communicate with the sick as if he would never recover. In the classroom, the physician must be calm, observe the proper level of attention to his patient;
• should set the patient up for a speedy recovery, make him think in a positive way;
• should not allow persons who treat him with obvious indifference to the patient. The patient's emotions should be kind, positive;  
• may offer the victim to draw on a piece of paper those objects that are difficult for him to explain in words.

A doctor can conduct classes to quiet calm music. At the same time, he must control the level of noise surrounding the patient at home. TV, radio should not be intrusive, loud.

Also, during classes, the physician must pronounce all the words loudly and clearly, politely address the patient, be tolerant of him.

Remember: loud noise quickly tires the patient. 

Remember: if the patient has had a hemorrhagic or ischemic stroke, then the sessions last 10-15 minutes. Gradually, their duration increases.

How to restore speech at home

In addition to classes with a speech therapist, the patient should also deal with the restoration of speech at home after an ischemic stroke. To do this, he must perform the following simple exercises.

Remember: each exercise is performed 10 times.

A set of speech exercises to help develop lips and used after a stroke. To do this, the patient must:

• stretch your lips into a tube;
• grab one lip with the other, change position;
• pull the lips with your fingers to the sides, up, down;
• smile broadly, change the smile into a sad expression, lower the corners of the lips down.

The following exercises help develop the language. To do so, the patient must:

• strongly stick out the tongue from the mouth;
• touch the tongue to the sky and the zone located in the lower part of the sky;
• lick your lips, change the position of the tongue several times;
• round the tongue, stretch it far back;
• move the tongue along the inside of the cheeks and lips, change position.

Remember: the victim should not overstrain, but he should not be very sorry for himself either.

He is encouraged to combine active activities with relaxation. Then rehabilitation will be faster, and negative emotions will visit the victim much less frequently.

What tongue twisters can be used

To restore speech after a stroke, tongue twisters can also be used. But it's important to do them right. The patient must:

• At first, engage in simple tongue twisters, and then move on to more complex ones. For example, at first he can take tongue twisters consisting of 1-2 sentences, which cause him moderate difficulties;
• gradually add new letters to speech. First, the patient needs to learn to clearly pronounce 1-2 sounds, and then move on to more complex ones. Remember: with a large speech therapy load, the speech apparatus is greatly overstrained ;
• conduct classes in a playful way. The patient can, together with his young relative, learn tongue twisters for the development of adult speech after a stroke.

Remember: lip training is carried out with tongue twisters that have the letters "B", "P".

The language is trained with the help of tongue twisters with letters: "L", "B".

Additional speech recovery methods

In addition to traditional methods of restoring speech, a stroke patient can use additional ones. For example, he can:

• Sign up for physical therapy. It includes many techniques that help a stroke patient to restore speech. During classes, electrical stimulation of the functions and muscles of speech occurs. Usually, physiotherapy is used when the patient has motor aphasia. But at present this method of influence is not used.
• Go to acupuncture. This method of influence helps to correct the process of articulation, improves the patient's speech. Acupuncture is also used for motor aphasia.
• Sign up for reflexology. During therapy, the specialist has an impact on special points located on the face. This speeds up the recovery process.
• Start stem cell treatment. Such therapy is based on the introduction of stem cells into the affected tissues. They replace damaged cells, accelerate the process of recovery of the victim.
• Engage in functional management. This technique is based on the patient's independent visual control of his speech muscles. And if he does not understand the speech addressed to him, then you should not use this method of influence.

Remember: all methods of influence are used only in a complex. They are used until the victim's symptoms disappear.

When the patient is given a massage

In addition to impaired speech function, often in people who have had a stroke, the following unpleasant symptoms appear. They have:

• drooling heavily from the mouth;
• sagging cheeks, corners of the mouth;
• when eating, food falls out of the mouth.

Massage helps them get rid of these signs. It tones the muscles of the face, restores facial expressions. And after the massage, it becomes easier for the patient to pronounce the words.

During the massage, the patient has an impact on special points located on the face and tongue. Massage begins with the fact that the patient strokes, rubs his cheeks, forehead, chin.

Remember: it is better to find out about the location of useful points from your doctor in advance. He will also be able to answer the question of whether speech is restored after a stroke.

Complementary Therapy

Traditional methods of restoring speech after a stroke at home can be supplemented with traditional medicine. For example, the patient can use decoctions and infusions made from:

• pine cones;
• viburnum;
• thyme;
• juniper;
• wild rose;
• strawberries;
• calendula.

And the patient can take coniferous baths. Needles improves muscle mobility, improves a person's mood. But if the patient is allergic to pine needles, then he can only do pine baths.

Healing herbs the patient can collect on their own in the forest or buy at a pharmacy.

How long does it take to restore the patient's speech

There is no definite answer to the question of how to restore speech after an ischemic stroke, and how long it will take to recover.

Recovery depends on several factors. The process depends on:

• maintaining the patient's ability to articulate. For example, if a patient has completely lost his speech, makes only lowing sounds, then it will be very difficult for him to completely restore his speech;
• type of aphasia. If only mimic functions are disturbed in a patient, then his speech will recover much faster. And if the patient sees an object, but cannot name it, then he will have to re-learn how to pronounce words, explain how to correctly build a sentence;  
• type of stroke. For example, patients who have had an ischemic stroke recover faster than people who have had a cerebral hemorrhage;  
• concerns of loved ones. If a person who has had a stroke has relatives who do speech exercises with him, cheer him up, then the speech of such a person will recover faster. And he does not need to contact a speech therapist or other specialist with the question of whether it is possible to restore speech after a stroke.

Remember: only a physician can draw up a correct rehabilitation program, correct it, and, if necessary, answer the question of how much speech is restored after a stroke.

In general, the patient's speech is restored for a very long time. This can take from 1 month to 1 year. The process of restoring speech depends on which speech centers were damaged in the victim.

To summarize: a stroke is a dangerous disease that can make any person disabled. Therefore, each person should carefully monitor himself, his health, and if any unpleasant symptoms appear, immediately contact a specialist. Joking with your health is very dangerous.