After a stroke or with neurological diseases like Parkinson's disease, the muscles of the throat may not work as well as they used to. You may find yourself coughing whenever you drink fast, or not being able to swallow things you used to enjoy. There are proven ways to fix this with strengthening exercises taught by a skilled speech therapist.
Memory loss may come with age, but if it is progressing at a concerning rate, or if you are diagnosed with Parkinson's, it can be slowed with therapy. If it happened after a stroke or traumatic brain injury, it can also be improved with targeted speech therapy.
After a stroke, you may find that writing is more difficult than before whether or not you have residual hand problems. You may mix up letters or numbers, or forget how to spell simple words. The good news is that it is possible to regain these skills with the right strategies by a skilled speech therapist.
After a stroke, you may find that reading is more difficult than before, no matter if your vision has or hasn't been damaged. The good news is that it is possible to regain these skills with the right speech therapist.
After a stroke, you may find that you can't understand people as well, or it takes a more effort to understand them, even after passing hearing tests, or with your hearing aids in. This is common with left-sided strokes (that affect the right side of your body), but can be improved with skilled speech therapy.
If you know what you want to say, but you 'can't get the words out right,' after a stroke, you may need speech therapy to reroute the signals in your brain to make all those words accessible again. Everybody has something important to say.
Strokes and other neurological diseases like Parkinson's can either suddenly or gradually affect how people understand you because of your speech. If you often hear: What?, it might not just be your spouse's hearing. And there are scientifically-proven speech therapy techniques that can help you be understood more often.
If you have had a trauma to the head, such as a car accident or sports injury, it can subtly change your brain so that others don't notice, but you do. This is also common and frustrating for those with long-COVID, Lyme disease, or treated for cancer. The symptoms may be slower thinking, difficulty concentrating, and being unable to handle daily tasks like you did before. Yes, this can be helped with speech therapy.
