Aphasia, apraxia, dyspraxia, oh my!

Specifically, in the last two weeks we have seen improvements in Dad’s speech. He has begun forming the beginnings of simple sentences. He gets tied up on what I call the “bang” part of the sentence, the ending, the meaning, the point he’s trying to make. The beginnings are there. You have to start somewhere right, so where better than the beginning. The other day the speech therapist was teasing Dad about his name. She keeps calling him different names, provoking him to say his own name. He tried to introduce me to her and she tried to get him to say my name (it’s a tough sound to make, little kids always have difficulty), pointing out to me where the K sounds come from in our throat, just below the larynx. Both of these tasks are still difficult for him. She has confirmed what his other rehab speech therapist had confirmed, he is suffering from some apraxia on top of the aphasia. Apraxia, not to be confused with dyspraxia, is a neurological disorder that affects our ability to perform a task even though we may understand what is being asked, even though we are willing, even if we already know how to do it. I say some apraxia, because as Dad has been somewhat inconsistent with his rehab progress, the apraxia is also somewhat inconsistent. To give you a sense or idea of what apraxia is like, if you are having a conversation with Dad, he understands everything you are talking to him about. If he doesn’t think about it he can spit out a sentence, phrase or word, it’s understood and in the context of what you’re talking about. But if he is asked a question, if he is asked to do a task and has to think about it, well there entails the current roadblock. Sometimes he can do it, sometimes he can’t. He is also fully aware that when speaking, sometimes the wrong words come out or he gets hung up on a word and then continues to repeat it. It can obviously become frustrating (what was that virtue again?). I’m just trying to encourage him to relax and to give time for the right word to find its way out of his head, down the path and out of his mouth. In this day and age we are usually so quick to speak our mind and spout out seemingly anything without regard, in many instances, to what we are saying. We begin forming what our responses are while the other person is talking instead of actually listening to what they are saying. Well every sound out of Dad’s mouth is an attempt to communicate. Every sound is something we all need to focus on. He is communicating with us, we just need to listen very carefully. He will get there. We all will.