Speech Therapy For Stroke Patients in San Diego
At Bella Vista Health Center, our Speech Therapy program consists of treatment, support, and care for individuals with communication, cognitive, and swallowing disorders.
The dedicated speech therapists at our skilled nursing facility will evaluate your loved one to diagnose the cause of his or her communication difficulties. From there, the therapist will develop an individualized program of care that involves work in key areas such as speech, cognition, voice, and swallowing. Regaining skills in reading, writing, and memory are also emphasized.
Best speech therapy for stroke patients
Stroke affects each person differently, depending on where in the brain the stroke takes place. The best speech therapy for stroke patients will be customized by the type and severity of their communication disorder. Aphasia is the most common language disorder caused by stroke, and there are two main types: receptive aphasia, which involves difficulty understanding speech; and expressive aphasia, which involves difficulty expressing what you want to say. Stroke patients can also experience dysarthria, which is weakness in the muscles used to speak. This includes the tongue, lips, and throat. Dyspraxia is another muscle-related speech disorder, in which the muscles are strong but the patient can’t move them in the correct order and sequence to produce sounds and words. The best speech therapy for stroke patients addresses related conditions that affect speech following a stroke, including:
Changes to the emotional aspects of speech, such as tone or facial expression
Excessive tiredness, which can make conversations physically exhausting
Memory and concentration problems
Changes to mood or personality
Swallowing problems
Speech therapists who specialize in stroke rehabilitation are equipped with a wide range of therapeutic strategies and techniques aimed at helping stroke patients improve their ability to communicate, and maximize their quality of life.
Stroke and Aphasia
Aphasia is a disorder that impairs the expression and understanding of language, resulting from damage to the left side of the brain. Aphasia usually occurs suddenly, following a stroke or head injury, but it can also develop slowly due to a brain tumor or neurological disease. Signs of aphasia include:
Speaking in short or incomplete sentences
Speaking in sentences that don’t make sense
Substituting one word for another
Substituting one sound for another
Speaking unrecognizable words
Not understanding other people’s conversations
Writing sentences that don’t make sense
Speech therapy for stroke patients with aphasia aims to improve their ability to communicate, restore language abilities as much as possible, and learn other ways of communicating such as gestures or assistive devices.
Improving speech after a stroke
Speech therapy stroke rehabilitation is a gradual, challenging process for patients of any age, which is why our team of speech therapists at Bella Vista promote a comfortable and nurturing environment where patients feel empowered to re-learn how to speak. Treatment begins with an in-depth evaluation assessing strengths and weaknesses so the therapy program can be tailored to each individual. As with physical exercise, repetition of speech improvement techniques will help the patient’s brain recover by rebuilding neural pathways that connect words to their meanings. Improvements that patients can expect with speech therapy after stroke include:
Clear and concise speech
Voice volume control
Finding the correct words when speaking
Understanding what others are saying
Better attention and concentration
Organized thoughts and decision-making processes
Conversations remaining on topic
Appropriate facial expressions
Learning and remembering new information
Re-learning how to swallow using adaptive techniques
What does a speech therapist do for stroke patients?
Speech therapy exercises are most effective when practiced at home between sessions. Consistent practice also allows speech therapists to evaluate improvement by identifying strengths and weaknesses and adjusting treatment accordingly. Some of the exercises stroke patients can expect during speech therapy include:
Breathing exercises: Difficulty with regulating breathing during speech is a common symptom of aphasia, and taking excessive breaths while talking can impair communication. Breathing exercises such as planning out breaths and repeating sentences can help patients re-learn how to construct sentences and breathe when appropriate.
Tongue strengthening exercises: Weakness in the tongue muscles is another common side-effect of stroke, and tongue strengthening exercises can improve a patient’s ability to make the proper sounds to form words. Simple repetitive tongue stretches work similarly to weight-lifting reps in that they directly strengthen the tongue, but they also strengthen the neural pathways and “muscle memory” of speech that is often lost after stroke.
Speech sound practice: Even with proper tongue strength, many stroke patients have difficulty making the right sounds to form words, and repetitive sound practice can help. Focusing on both the clarity and strength of the sound, these exercises help patients speak clearly and understandably.
Picture naming: Difficulty with physically forming words is one aspect of aphasia, but some patients have more difficulty connecting the word they’re thinking of with the correct mouth movements to make the sound. Naming pictures strengthens the connection between objects and words in the brain, while also using repetition to help master pronunciation.
Sentence practice: Some stroke patients can form singular words with little difficulty, but find it hard to form complete and correct sentences. Sentence practice involves reading written sentences or constructing sentences by naming pictures, allowing patients to communicate more effectively.
Dementia Speech Therapy Programs
The goal of our speech therapy programs is to help residents regain the ability to communicate, comprehend language, and swallow, as well as equip them with the tools they need to continue recovery at home. There are several speech therapy programs available to rehab patients at Bella Vista Health Center, including:
Dysphagia retraining
Those who suffer from a stroke, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, or other damage to the central nervous system may develop a swallowing disorder, known as dysphagia. The speech therapists at Bella Vista Health Center work with dysphagia patients to strengthen the muscles in the throat and introduce behavioral techniques to help them relearn how to swallow safely.
Cognitive retraining
Changes in thinking and the ability to understand language can have a dramatic impact on an individual’s quality of life. Our cognitive retraining program is tailored to each patient’s individual needs and may involve teaching the patient strategies for approaching and solving problems, establishing routines and schedules, improving memory, and teaching exercises that increase attention span.
Communication retraining
Some individuals who have suffered a stroke or other neurological damage may lose the ability to initiate and sequence the sounds that make up speech. Our speech therapy after stroke program helps individuals relearn how to coordinate the muscle movements required to produce sounds correctly and sequence those sounds into clear words. Emphasis is also placed on improving breath support to adjust speaking volume and increasing tongue and lip movement.
For more information on Bella Vista Health Center’s skilled nursing facility or speech therapy programs, please contact us at (619) 644-1000.
