Article: Mark - Resiliency

Mark - The Teaching of Talking

Resiliency 

Isn't resiliency a great word?

It means the power or ability to return to the original form, or position after being bent, compressed, or stretched. Sounds like an injury, or a stroke? Resiliency is also the ability to recover readily from illness, depression, or adversity.

I am amazed at the capacity and resiliency of today's caregivers who provide love and care to their loved ones who have suffered from head injuries or strokes. Likewise, parents of children who have not been developing the ability to speak, have shown an uncanny ability to rise to the occasion and do whatever it takes to help their loved one speak better.

I would like to tell you the story of Diane, who has a husband who suffered from a stroke and was in such a tizzy regarding his speech diagnosis and how to go about helping her husband speak. She was told by many speech therapists that her husband's speech was "functional", and informed he would be discharged. Diane knew there were answers and ways to help her husband speak again. I read her blog last week pinkhouseonthecorner.blogspot.com and she announced to thousands of people who read her blog, that she actually had the first conversation with her husband since his stroke! She states, like other caregivers who are learning how to stimulate language that the language stimulation methods used are working and are now yielding spontaneous speech  and other speaking surprises each and every day. Her husband Bob is coming up with more and more independent speech that is self generated. (Speech that comes out freely without cues).


And then there is Rhonda whose husband has a severe dysarthria, .....

See the full article Resiliency (July/2012)
                          in The Teaching of Talking.