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Too Many to Count is the first study in the United Kingdom to explore the prevalence of brain injury in domestic abuse survivors accessing community-based services.
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Home / Talk Therapy: Monika Wright on Aphasia and Speech & Language Therapy
For many people recovering from a brain injury, difficulties with speech and communication can seem like an overwhelming hurdle. At Brainkind, our team of expert Speech and Language therapists – like Monika – are here to help.
As a Speech and Language Therapist, Monika Wright works with people who struggle with communication every day.
For some of the people we support, this is caused by Aphasia – a language impairment caused by damage to the language centres of the brain. It’s usually caused by a stroke, brain injury, or neurological condition. Over 350,000 people in the UK are affected by it.
Though each person is impacted by aphasia differently, it can affect communication on all levels. Understanding what is said to you, finding the words for what you want to say, putting together sentences, even ready and writing – all are impacted.
At Brainkind, our expert clinicians know how vital communication is for recovery. Monika said:
“Communication is crucial. It helps the people we support to express themselves and connect with their families and communities.”
“Speech and Language Therapy,” Monika says, “involves supporting the person to be a functional communicator”. For aphasia, this works in two main ways: enabling communication and direct intervention.
“We offer them and their loved ones education about aphasia so they can adjust the way they communicate – like by summarising spoken information in writing or providing a simpler, Easy Read version of documents.”
Direct intervention differs depending on the needs of the individual and can involve everything from conversation therapy to breaking words down into essential sounds. Monika shared details of the methods she uses to help the people we support strengthen links between words in a person’s internal word bank:
“One way to access this is working on language comprehension. I like to incorporate tasks which help the person improve their ability to answer questions about a paragraph they heard or read. Over time, we increase the paragraph’s length to promote successful learning.”
The processes can be complicated. They take patience, resilience, and great teamwork between a therapist and the person they’re supporting. The impact, though, can be life-changing. It was for Paul, who our Speech and Language team helped to swallow again. After their hard work, he finally reached his goal to go to a comedy gig and have a drink last year.
For people who struggle with communication, it can feel like an insurmountable barrier separating them from their communities. At Brainkind, we believe that no one should have to face that challenge alone. Monika and her colleagues in our Speech and Language Therapy team work hard to help people reach across that barrier, no matter what.
If you’d like to find out how you can help our staff – like Monika – continue their life-changing work, click here.
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