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SLP Services for Post-Stroke, Dementia, & Brain Injury Management

SLPs can help with:​

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  • Word-finding difficulties

  • Slurring or unclear speech

  • Ungrammatical or nonfluent speech

  • Difficulty understanding

  • Difficulty repeating words/phrases

  • Difficulty spelling or reading

  • Memory disturbances

  • Difficulty participating in conversation

  • Difficulty organizing thought

  • New confusion

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Aphasia is an acquired neurogenic language disorder resulting from an injury to the brain—most typically, the left hemisphere. Depending on the area of the brain affected, the brain can also have other profound differences in its symptomatic presentation, whether this be through neurogenic changes, dementia, or brain injury (e.g., concussion). 

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Contact Andrea Lau at Speech Vancouver if you have any concerns regarding your a stroke, or brian injury. Andrea can provide assessment and therapy services in the comfort of your home in Vancouver and surrounding regions including: Burnaby, Richmond, Surrey, Coquitlam, North Vancouver, and West Vancouver, Surrey. 

 

to continue reading about other services offered.

Andrea's Ad​ditional Training and Qualifications for Stroke Management:

Andrea has worked in the Stroke Rehab teams and Stroke Units of acute hospitals to support the assessment and treatment of speech and language for post-stroke patients. Andrea is also well-versed in the provision of stroke rehabilitation in long-term care (LTC) facilities when she worked as an independent contractor to support multiple residents living in LTCs in Ontario with functional goals and to re-establish quality of life. 

What happened to my speech/language after a stroke or brain injury?

 

Aphasia is caused by damage to the language centers of the brain. In most people, these language centers are located in the left hemisphere. It is important to note that aphasia, while a communication disorder, is NOT a reflection of someone's intelligence. It may very well be that some persons can understand everything going on around them, but they just can’t express themselves. 

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Common causes of aphasia include the following:

  • Stroke

    • Ischemic—caused by a blockage that disrupts blood flow to a region of the brain

    • Hemorrhagic—caused by a ruptured blood vessel that damages surrounding brain tissue

  • Traumatic brain injury

  • Brain tumors

  • Brain surgery

  • Brain infections

  • Progressive neurological diseases (e.g., dementia)

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What are common signs and symptoms of aphasia?

 

  • Impairments in Spoken Language Expression

    • Having difficulty finding words (anomia)

    • Speaking haltingly or with effort in short, fragmented phrases

    • Speaking in single words (e.g., names of objects), and omitting smaller words like the, of, and was (i.e., telegraphic speech)

    • Substituting sounds or words (e.g., “table” for bed; “wishdasher” for dishwasher)

    • Making up words (e.g., jargon), or fluently stringing together nonsense and real words, or using words in the wrong order

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  • Impairments in Spoken Language Comprehension

    • Having difficulty understanding spoken utterances

    • Requiring extra time to understand spoken messages

    • Providing unreliable answers to “yes/no” questions

    • Failing to understand complex grammar (e.g., “The dog was chased by the cat.”) or fast speech (e.g., radio or television new)

    • Lacking awareness of errors  

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  • Impairments in Written Expression (Agraphia)

    • Having difficulty writing or copying letters, words, and sentences

    • Substituting incorrect letters or words

    • Writing sentences with incorrect grammar

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  • Impairments in Reading Comprehension (Alexia)

    • Having difficulty comprehending written material

    • Having the inability to sound out words

    • Substituting associated words for a word (e.g., “chair” for couch)

    • Having difficulty reading noncontent words (e.g., function words such as to, from, the)

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How can a Speech-Language Pathologist help? 

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Andrea is well-trained to evaluate and provide functional therapy goals for post-stroke or acquired brain injury management. Andrea's most important principles to her private practice are to work in client-centred manner: (1) Firstly by meeting the patient where he/she is, by recognizing the client's functional goals and targeting areas that are most valued by them; and (2) by ensuring that the client's family members are also involved in therapy and able to receive the necessary education to become good communication partners equipped with the strategies to support the client. 

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SLPs can help with: ​

  • Diagnosing the presence or absence of aphasia

  • Developing person-centered treatment plans, providing treatment, documenting progress, and determining appropriate dismissal criteria in collaboration with the patient and treatment team

  • Counseling persons with aphasia and their families regarding communication-related issues and facilitating participation in family and community contexts

  • Serving as an integral member of a collaborative team that includes physicians, other professionals (e.g., nurses and case managers, neuropsychologists, occupational and physical therapists, audiologists), and the patient and their family

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Contact Andrea Lau at Speech Vancouver if you have any concerns regarding your post-stroke or brain injury management.  

 

For more information on how Speech Vancouver can help, please phone 604 723 9589 or email: andrealau.slp@gmail.com

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