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Recovery of speech after stroke: exercises and treatment

Every year in the world increases the number of strokes linked to increased risk factors of this severe disease. Stroke,

Types of speech disorders after stroke

Speech disorders which in medicine is called aphasia, after stroke observed in 35% of patients. Depending on which part of the brain tissue affected and how much, there are several basic types of aphasia.

Motor aphasia

In the human brain, there's a section called Broca's or motor. This area of the cortex, which is localized in the posterior part of the third gyrus of the frontal lobe. Right-handers is the left hemisphere and left-handers the opposite. This area of the cortex provides the motor organization of speech, i.e. pronunciation of words.

If the damage of this centre develops motor aphasia, i.e. the inability to pronounce words and sentences. The patient understands speech addressed to him, but to speak his monologue as he could get. Instead, he makes a set of sounds or of unrelated individual words.

Sensory aphasia

Sensory speech area which is responsible for understanding speech, is located in the rear of the upper gyrus of the temporal region in the dominant hemisphere (in right-handed – right, left-handers Vice versa). This plot is called the Wernicke centre.

If it is damaged during a stroke, the patient ceases to understand the speech of others, and therefore suffer and speech function it is to pronounce certain words correctly, but not linked. This is called sensory aphasia.

Semantic aphasia

Such a violation of develops when a damaged part of the brain, located at the junction between the parietal, temporal and frontal lobes. Patients do not understand complex written and oral grammatical structures of speech. For example, a person can not explain what is the difference between the phrases “father's brother” and “father's brother”. This happens because the patient ceases to understand the relationship between words by their endings, prepositions, conjunctions, comparisons and definitions.

Amnestic aphasia

At this violation of person owns spontaneous and dialogue speech, but he has difficulties naming familiar objects (he does not remember at the moment, the spacecraft is called one or the other thing).

Total aphasia

This is the most severe form of speech disorders, when a person does not speak or understand the speech of others. Observed in massive brain stroke.

A video lesson on the forms of aphasia:

Speech therapy

Sessions with a doctor-a speech therapist is the main treatment of speech disorders after stroke. Once you determined the type of aphasia, you can begin to exercise. As a rule, specialised treatment centreseffects and recovery after stroke have a staff speech therapist aphasiology. According to statistics, during these sessions approximately 30% of patients begin to talk before discharge from inpatient units.

As you know, the human brain during its activity uses only 5-7% of its potential. Meanwhile, the billions of nerve cells in the “resting quietly on the sidelines.” But in case of need, for example, damage of the active neurons in

Exercises to restore speech

Although each type of aphasia have their own sets of exercises that need to find a specialist, but you must also remember that the net forms of speech disorders in practice almost never occurs, in most cases they are mixed. Therefore, the following set of exercises do not hurt anyone, even a healthy person, and will only help to improve his diction and oratory skills.

A set of exercises to restore speech after a stroke:

  • Stretch the lips into a tube, held in position for 3-5 seconds, then repeat again (5-10 times).
  • The lower jaw, grab your upper lip, hold for a few seconds and release (5-10 repetitions).
  • Similar to the previous exercise, only now done the opposite – the top jaw, grab the lower lip.
  • Open the rock, his neck pulling forward, and the tongue maximally visovivat from the oral cavity. Stay in this position for a few seconds and return to starting. Repeat 5-10 times.
  • Alternately licked her lips, then right to left, then Vice versa. 5-10 approaches enough.
  • Licked lips in a circular motion language.
  • Try to twist the language into a tube.
  • The mouth is closed. Tongue trying to reach up to the soft palate.
  • The mouth is closed, teeth open. Led circular movements of the tongue between the teeth and lips.
  • Click my tongue about the sky like horse hooves when running.
  • Proposed language the maximum from the oral cavity and simultaneously hiss like a snake.
  • Try to smile on all 32 teeth, and then smile without showing them.
  • Alternately, extend your tongue to the tip of the nose, and then to the chin.
  • Send kisses, while loudly-we eat.

All these exercises can be performed in any order several times a day. In parallel, you need to deal with other types of self-recovery of speech. For example, you can complete words and phrases for assistant, learning poems, tongue twisters, songs, rhymes, listening to music.

It must be remembered that at the time of the class the room should be quiet.

Other treatments

In addition to the main techniques of restoration of speech, there are further, that whenan integrated approach show very positive results.

Drug therapy

Medical treatment for speech disorders are no different from the General scheme. There are no drugs that would help to overcome aphasia, but the appointment of certain drugs improves the blood flow in the brain, improves the nutrition of nerve cells, stimulates mental activity, improves memory, increases attention, which positively affects the General condition and speeds up rehabilitation.

Surgery

Is rarely used in cases when other methods did not improve the patient's condition. Possible only in case of ischemic stroke. During a neurosurgical operation, which is the formation of extra-intracranial microanastomosis, creates an additional connection between an intact vessel of the brain and speech area to bypass the lesions. By improving the blood circulation in the speech area, there may occur improvement, but often there is no effect, causing the risk of the operation exceed its advantage.

Physiotherapy and physical therapy

You must know that problems with speech after stroke may be associated not only with direct damage to the speech areas of the brain, but also with paralysis of facial muscles. In such cases, the articulation muscles just don't perform their functions, and treatment and recovery the same as with motor disorders.

In such cases the most effective will be physiotherapy and a special set of physical therapy after a stroke. Spend electromyostimulation articulation of the muscles, acupuncture and other techniques.

Stem cell therapy

Experimental method of treatment is stem cell therapy. This is a promising technique that is just beginning to develop, but there are data that indicate the good regenerative effect of stem cell treatment.

Stroke is a complex disease, but not a sentence. If the person is motivated for recovery, he will be able to overcome all, to restore all the lost functions, including speech. The main thing – to believe in yourself and the support of loved ones, the rest help medicine.