Speech Therapy

I'm often asked about Dad's speech, "Well, can he talk?" Yes he can and yes he does. Not like he used to, but yes.

Yesterday I took Dad to speech therapy. It was the first time I had taken him since his initial visit, a couple of weeks after he came home. Normally our friend Bill takes Dad, something I am beyond grateful for, but Bill couldn’t take him yesterday. I’m fortunate that Bill has been able to help out with speech therapy appointments and that Mom has been able to drive Dad into town for his physical and occupational therapy appointments. I don’t feel like there are several of me running around from town to town (because we are in Maine, nothing is close).  

So away we went to speech therapy. I had a blast. I can’t tell you the last time I had so much fun. His speech therapist, Karen, is a wonderful woman with a great sense of humor. I expected to just sit quietly while they worked on his exercises, but no this was interactive so I got to participate! Karen sat next to Dad and would show him a photo. He then had to describe the photo and I had to guess what it was. Karen gave him clues as to what to describe or to focus in on. Little known fact about me. I hate games, except card games. I’m the last person you want on your Pictionary team and I’m horrible at charades. Needless to say, I now had to play guesswork with what Dad was seeing. Maybe it’s being in tune with someone else, maybe it’s that Dad is extremely expressive and descriptive, but I got every photo he described to me. For someone who has difficulty getting the words out, Dad does an amazing job of getting the point across, which is unusual for someone with aphasia Karen said. Normally the short term memory kicks in (or disappears) and the train of thought is lost or the person prior to the aphasia didn’t use language much to begin with so the complex way the brain strings together sentences and forms conversations isn’t really felt as a loss to the individual. With Dad though, his thought process is so intact and exact that it enables him to very effectively communicate, despite the lack of words. The flip side is it also makes it that much more frustrating for him when he can’t get the words out. Karen told me (something I already knew) Dad is a perfectionist and very hard on himself when he gets a word wrong, something he knows as soon as it’s uttered from his lips. That’s usually when he swears and makes a discouraged face. I learned how to help him get his point across by taking clues from the few words he got out and whatever hand gestures he gave me. This was charades, only Dad was allowed to talk. The best example I can give of this was a photo of eggs with bacon and toast (breakfast of champions). As soon as Dad saw it he looked at me, made a yummy sound and smacked his lips. I said is it food? Yes (his eyes widened). I said is it breakfast? Yes (his eyes widened even more). Is it eggs and bacon? Ding ding ding, winner winner chicken dinner! Karen was hysterically laughing that we got it so quickly. All I could think was, I know my Dad, that’s for sure. It was a great therapy session and I’m so glad I went with him yesterday. I will treasure that memory for the rest of my days.