When does Your Senior Loved One Need Speech Therapy?

It is important to communicate with our senior loved ones to ensure that they are doing well. But sometimes after suffering a stroke or a major head injury senior people often have impaired speech and are unable to express themselves. They need speech therapy, a type of training that is provided to people, who due to a stroke or other conditions have speech problems. It will help them to improve their speech so that they can express themselves.

Today, let us have a close look at when your senior loved one may need Speech Therapy in a detailed way

Aphasia

It is a language disorder that can occur suddenly if your senior loved ones have suffered a stroke or a head injury. It may also occur when anyone has a slow-growing brain tumor. Besides speaking problems, Aphasia can affect your beloved senior’s ' way of writing and understanding both written and spoken language. Its severity depends on what caused the brain damage and how much the brain is affected. There is no cure for Aphasia but Speech Therapy can help your senior loved one relearn language and understanding skills. Elder Care Services in Kolkata provide speech therapy services. You can avail a speech-language therapist who specializes in treating problems related to speech, language etc. from an elder care service for your senior loved ones to make them feel better.

Dysphagia

Our senior loved ones may have a swallowing problem. This problem is known as dysphagia. It can be caused by a stroke, oral cancer or gastric-related problems and need immediate attention to help our senior loved one overcome the difficulties that they face while eating because they need to eat nutritious food to remain healthy. The speech-language therapist will teach your loved ones how to position their body while eating food, or they will advise your senior loved ones to have foods that are texture- modified meaning the food is pureed, minced or chopped.

Apraxia

Strokes can also cause Apraxia of speech which is difficulty in planning and coordinating the movements necessary for speaking a word. The speech therapist will tell the patient to repeat the same words many times. He/she may tell your senior loved one to carefully observe their mouth movements when the therapist is saying a word or practice speaking in front of a mirror so that your senior loved one can remember how to move their mouth to speak some specific words.

Dysarthria

Our senior loved one’s speech can become slow, slurred and mumbled after suffering a stroke or a head injury due to the weakness in the muscle used for speaking. This is known as Dysarthria. The speech therapist will monitor your senior loved one’s breathing pattern and muscle movements. They may ask your beloved seniors to repeat certain words. They will also suggest your beloved senior speak slowly so that they get time to form words.

If your senior loved one is having any of these above-mentioned issues after a stroke or a major head injury then speech therapy will help them to communicate with others and make them feel better.

Debosree is a professional writer working in the Senior Care Field for quite a long time. She has written many informative blogs and articles on the senior care facilities that are available. He has a great reader base.