Speech Therapy for a Traumatic Brain Injury

When you suffer from a traumatic brain injury, you may develop communication and cognitive problems that hinder your ability to live independently. The problems vary depending on the extent of the damage. The consequences of a traumatic brain injury include a skull fracture, blood clots, nerve damage or brain swelling. After suffering a traumatic brain injury, you may have trouble finding the words needed to express yourself through speaking and writing or have issues with social communication, such as carrying on a conversation. Speech therapy can reverse these symptoms and help you regain your communication and cognitive abilities.

Goals

• The goal of speech therapy is to improve your cognitive performance, regain basic counting skills, learn how to spell and write again and reverse the affects of memory loss. There are various treatments for the different stages of recovery and each are specifically designed to improve a certain areas of your brain.

Stage I Treatment

• Stage I of treatment puts an emphasis on developing communication methods between you and the therapist. One of the first lessons is to teach you how to indicate yes or no, which allows you to respond to questions and starts a dialogue between the two parties. Therapists also incorporate sensorimotor stimulation, which is designed to stimulate and heighten your sense of touch, hearing, smell and sight. By the end of stage I treatment, the goal is for you to be able to make simple gestures, such as eye blinks, nods and hand gestures.

Stage II Treatment

• Stage II treatment examines the cognitive skills within your body, such as judgment, planning, organizing, perception, memory and abstract thinking. This stage of treatment is designed to improve your independence and control over your environment. Speech therapists set up challenges to stimulate your organizational skills and improve your levels of concentration.

Stage III Treatment

• During the final stage of treatment, a speech therapist enables you to regain functionality and independence. You learn to deal with the problems or disabilities that have become a permanent fixture in your life and develop methods to live and maneuver in the space around you. Therapists teach you to ask questions when you become confused in a situation, write down main ideas and thoughts for clarification, use visual imagery to improve your memory and practice speaking words and thoughts that come to mind.