Saturday News

Contents of This Week Saturday News:

• Headline - Aphasia (Speech Disorders)

Aphasia (/əˈfeɪʒə/, /əˈfeɪziə/ or /eɪˈfeɪziə/; from Greek a- ("without") + phásis (φάσις, "speech")) is the name given to a collection of language disorders which have in common that they are caused by damage to the brain.  A requirement for a diagnosis of aphasia is that, prior to the illness or injury, the person's language skills were normal. The difficulties of people with aphasia can range from occasional trouble finding words to losing the ability to speak, read, or write, but does not affect intelligence. A definition from Wikipedia and video clips from YouTube / Vimeo.

• Eclectic - Many articles from many Guest Bloggers about Stroke
• Coming Soon: "After Words," a Film about Aphasia
• Amazing Grace
• Pictures Can Explain What OTs Are Doing
• Singing for Stroke Survivors
• I'm Not Drunk, "Retarded", or Mentally Unstable
• Speech Markers of Alzheimer's Disease Progression
• Therapy-Induced Brain Reorganization Patterns in Aphasia
• Introduction Movie Mark Ittleman using Teaching of Talking Method Stroke Patients with Aphasia
• Stroke Rehabilitation - Language
• ‘Not Just for a Month’
• Survivor Guilt
• Singing
• Aphasia pt.1
• Ten Things NOT to Say or Do to a Stroke Patient
• What Happened to My Book?
• Weekly Columnists
• Sunday Stroke Survival: Being Tied Up and Gagged
• Caregiver: Bath Time Stories
• Jackie The Jester: Amazing How Your Values Change as You Age!
• TED Talks - Mark Applebaum: The Mad Scientist of Music
• Rick Mercer Report: Rick at the Gravenhurst Winter Carnival
• Laid-Back Administration: Just a Minor Updated
• Daily Comics: FB Or FW, Dilbert, Mayes, Doonesbury

Definition: Aphasia (Speech Disorders)

Aphasia From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cortex

Aphasia (/əˈfeɪʒə/, /əˈfeɪziə/ or /eɪˈfeɪziə/; from Greek a- ("without") + phásis (φάσις, "speech")) is the name given to a collection of language disorders which have in common that they are caused by damage to the brain.  A requirement for a diagnosis of aphasia is that, prior to the illness or injury, the person's language skills were normal (for developmental language disorders, seeSpecific_language_impairment). The difficulties of people with aphasia can range from occasional trouble finding words to losing the ability to speak, read, or write, but does not affect intelligence. This also affects visual language such as sign language.

Aphasia is most commonly caused by stroke. Brain damage linked to aphasia can also be caused by other brain diseases, including cancer (brain tumor), epilepsy, and Alzheimer's disease.

Acute aphasia disorders usually develop quickly as a result of head injury or stroke, and progressive forms of aphasia develop slowly from a brain tumor, infection, or dementia. The area and extent of brain damage or atrophy will determine the type of aphasia and its symptoms. Aphasia types include expressive aphasia, receptive aphasia, conduction aphasia, anomic aphasia, global aphasia, primary progressive aphasias and many others. Medical evaluations for the disorder range from clinical screenings by a neurologist to extensive tests by a speech-language pathologist or neuropsychologist. Most acute aphasia patients can recover some or most skills by working with a speech-language pathologist. This rehabilitation can take two or more years and is most effective when begun quickly. Improvement varies widely, depending on the aphasia's cause, type, and severity. Recovery also depends on the patient's age, health, motivation, handedness, and educational level. Therapy for aphasia ranges from increasing functional communication to improving speech accuracy, depending on the person's severity, needs and support of family and friends.

Classification

Video: Aphasia (Speech Disorders)

Language and the Brain: Aphasia and Split-Brain Patients

Published on Sep 17, 2013

Learn about language areas of the brain and the effects of damage to those parts of the brain. By Carole Yue.

More free lessons at Khan Academy.

Standard YouTube License @ khanacademymedicine

Eclectic Stuff

Definition: Eclectic(noun) a person who derives ideas, style, or taste from a broad and diverse range of sources.

Coming Soon: "After Words," a Film about Aphasia

Grace Carpenter
My Happy Stroke

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

If you're reading my blog, you probably know what aphasia is, and how devastating it can be. But so many people have never heard the word. Raising awareness of aphasia--what it is, and how it can radically change a person's life--is important. It will help more people to get the support they need to lead a productive life.

So I'm really happy that After Words, a film about living with aphasia, is airing on many PBS stations, including WGBH in Boston. It will air in Boston on February 3 (Super Bowl Sunday) at 3pm. If  your local PBS station isn't on the schedule that the National Aphasia Association has published here, ask your station to air it.

Please watch it, talk about it with friends, and use the word "aphasia." Talk about how Gabby Giffords has it. Or how common it is: more than 1 million Americans are estimated to have it, and countless family members are affected, too.

In addition to the PBS showings, there are two special screenings in Boston (March 3) and New York (April 10). The screenings include conversations with cast members, the directors, producer, and (in New York only), Oliver Sacks.

Full disclosure: I'm in it; my kids are in it; many of my friends from the Aphasia Community Group of Boston are in the film; and one of my former speech pathologists, the amazing Jerry Kaplan, is one of the directors.

Here's a trailer from the film.


Standard YouTube License @ National Aphasia Association

See the original article:

Coming Soon: "After Words," a Film about Aphasia

in

My Happy Stroke

Amazing Grace

Barb Polan
Barb’s Recovery

Posted 12th March 2012

Corny and predictable - People have probably referred to Grace Carpenter as "amazing" her whole life. Yesterday I had the experience of meeting her for the first time, after interacting with her online for more than a year. She and her lovely family - devoted husband, her son and her daughter - visited Tom, Turbo and me in Gloucester. While Lucy is afraid of dogs and we had sent Trouble off with a friend, Grace "had" to meet the little brat. Meeting another stroke survivor, in particular, one who is significantly younger than I am, rather than the elderly ones in the local stroke support group, pleased me. Grace had a stroke three months after I did, which means that she too recently passed the second anniversary. We briefly compared arm/hand capabilities - hers are better - she can hold the bottom of her jacket to zip it, and she can raise her arm gracefully above her head, while I am unable to do either. Our legs appeared to function about the same, although she stepped down a very tall step out the library door, when I find it much too tall to lower myself on my strong leg so the my weak can hit the step first. She has aphasia, but speaks very well, while I have been talking non-stop since having the stroke. But it was interesting that we had exactly the same delay starting to reply to someone else's comment during a conversation. And we both dropped our canes about the same number of times. Similarity: Pre-stroke, we were both writers. Difference: I have gone back to work, although many of my attempts at work have been unsuccessful. Similarity: We both have two children - an older son and a younger daughter. Difference: Mine were grown up - 25 and 22 - and living away from home when I had the stroke, while Grace's were young - they are about 11 and 7 now. That made my post-stroke life much easier, I think. Bottom line: Meeting another stroke survivor made me even more aware that we are all members of a group that faces more than our fair share of challenges, and we have a lot in common. And we can laugh at our deficits in a way no one else can.

See the original article:

Amazing Grace

in

Barb's Recovery

Pictures Can Explain What OTs Are Doing

Rebecca Dutton
Home After a Stroke

April 4, 2014

Aphasia is the inability to understand the spoken word and/or to express oneself verbally.  It is easy for PTs to communicate with aphasic clients because everything they do is aimed at walking.  PTs explain this without saying a word.  I went to PT and exercised, walked, and rested.  When I came down after lunch I exercised, walked, and rested.  This routine repeated every day so I did not need to ask why my PT had me slide a towel on the floor with my paralyzed foot.  OTs have a harder time telling clients what we are doing because we work on so many different ADL goals.

Fortunately aphasic clients may retain procedural knowledge.  This is the ability to execute the steps of a task that often requires visual information.  We do not talk ourselves through the steps of tying shoelaces.  We remember what the steps look like and what our hands are supposed to do.  Visual information is stored in a different location than language so procedural knowledge may be spared after a stroke.  Printing out clip art or photos found on the Internet may help OTs explain what they are doing to help their clients.  Here is an example.
 

A towel sliding exercise may strengthen the arm which makes it easier to put on a shirt so the client can join the family for dinner.

If clients want to go home to eat a home cooked meal I am pretty sure they are not picturing themselves eating in bed wearing sweaty pajamas while the family eats at the dinning room table.

To close the deal salesmen have to offer customers something they want.  Guessing what a person wants is risky.  Better to show a client a notebook with pictures of hugging a child, petting a cat, sitting on the patio, etc.  It would be ideal if the family could bring in photos of activities the client enjoys.  Good salesmen watch a customer's face to see what makes his or her face light up.

See the original article:

Pictures Can Explain What OTs Are Doing

in

Home After a Stroke

Singing for Stroke Survivors

Jeff Porter
Stroke of Faith

Thursday, March 05, 2015

Back years ago, I felt it one Sunday morning.

Photo by lungstruck via Flickr

I'm a longtime, hymnal-using United Methodist. So one Sunday morning several months after my stroke, during a worship service, I sang along with everyone else, standing and holding a hymnal.

And suddenly, I felt like my language skills had gained a notch. This wasn't the first time I felt that way, but it was the first time while singing.

Now, here's a more recent story from across the pond on how how stroke survivors can sing:

• One Voice was was set up in 2008 by Lorna Bickley and Katy Bennett as a community choir for people who had suffered strokes. Singing helps recovery of movement, memory, breathing, speaking - and confidence.
• The phenomenon was first documented in Sweden in the early 18th Century when a young man who couldn't speak due to brain damage amazed the congregation at his local church by loudly singing along to hymns.
• The American Stroke Association reported "the acquired language disorder now called aphasia became a subject of clinical study and a target for rehabilitation beginning in the mid-1880s".
• "Since that time, every clinician working with aphasia has seen individuals who can produce words only when singing.”

See the original article:

Singing for Stroke Survivors

in

Stroke of Faith

I'm Not Drunk, "Retarded", or Mentally Unstable

Peter G. Levine
Stronger After Stroke

Friday, September 20, 2013

Its a pretty simple calculus: If you don't use it you lose it. But there's a corollary: If you don't try it you can't possibly gain it. For example, if you use an AFO to walk during the early days after stroke, you'll not easily not use the thing again.

And if I choose not to play violin - an instrument I've never played- I'll not get better at violin. So, both learning for anyone and relearning after stroke involves taking your brain (where learning happens) out of your brain's comfort zone.

Which leads me to spouses. I've met a ton of 'em. The wife is aphasic, the husband loves her, knows what she's trying to say and finishes the sentence for her. (When its men I always get the feeling they're saying to themselves, "Finally, I get to do the talking!") The spouse can become the exact thing they don't need.

Speech Markers of Alzheimer's Disease Progression

Bill Yates
Brain Posts

Posted 1st November 2013

Sensitive, reliable and inexpensive markers of disease progression in Alzheimer's disease are needed.

It is known that language and speech domains are impaired with Alzeimer's disease.

What is not known is whether speech performance can be used in the diagnosis and monitoring of progression in Alzheimer's disease (AD).

A recent case series published in the journal Brain supports the potential for expanded use of speech assessment in AD.

Ahmed and colleagues reported their findings in a group of 15 patients.  All patients had been assessed longitudinally, died during the course of follow up and had post-mortem confirmation of AD.

Subjects completed a comprehensive battery of neuropsychological assessments during their period of observation.

Therapy-Induced Brain Reorganization Patterns in Aphasia

Dean Reinke
Deans’ Stroke Musing

Friday, February 20, 2015

You'll have to see what your doctor and speech therapist can use from this to make a stroke protocol - Therapy-induced Brain Reorganization Patterns in Aphasia.

Stefanie Abel , Cornelius Weiller , Walter Huber , Klaus Willmes , Karsten Specht DOI: First published online: 16 February 2015.

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SUMMARY

Both hemispheres are engaged in recovery from word production deficits in aphasia. Lexical therapy has been shown to induce brain reorganization even in patients with chronic aphasia. However, the interplay of factors influencing reorganization patterns still remains unresolved. We were especially interested in the relation between lesion site, therapy-induced recovery, and beneficial reorganization patterns. Thus, we applied intensive lexical therapy, which was evaluated with functional magnetic resonance imaging, to 14 chronic patients with aphasic word retrieval deficits. In a group study, we aimed to illuminate brain reorganization of the naming network in comparison with healthy controls. Moreover, we intended to analyse the data with joint independent component analysis to relate lesion sites to therapy-induced brain reorganization, and to correlate resulting components with therapy gain. As a result, we found peri-lesional and contralateral activations basically overlapping with premorbid naming networks observed in healthy subjects. Reduced activation patterns for patients compared to controls before training comprised damaged left hemisphere language areas, right precentral and superior temporal gyrus, as well as left caudate and anterior cingulate cortex. There were decreasing activations of bilateral visuo-cognitive, articulatory, attention, and language areas due to therapy, with stronger decreases for patients in right middle temporal gyrus/superior temporal sulcus, bilateral precuneus as well as left anterior cingulate cortex and caudate. The joint independent component analysis revealed three components indexing lesion subtypes that were associated with patient-specific recovery patterns. Activation decreases (i) of an extended frontal lesion disconnecting language pathways occurred in left inferior frontal gyrus; (ii) of a small frontal lesion were found in bilateral inferior frontal gyrus; and (iii) of a large temporo-parietal lesion occurred in bilateral inferior frontal gyrus and contralateral superior temporal gyrus. All components revealed increases in prefrontal areas. One component was negatively correlated with therapy gain. Therapy was associated exclusively with activation decreases, which could mainly be attributed to higher processing efficiency within the naming network. In our joint independent component analysis, all three lesion patterns disclosed involved deactivation of left inferior frontal gyrus. Moreover, we found evidence for increased demands on control processes. As expected, we saw partly differential reorganization profiles depending on lesion patterns. There was no compensatory deactivation for the large left inferior frontal lesion, with its less advantageous outcome probably being related to its disconnection from crucial language processing pathways.

See the original article:

Therapy-Induced Brain Reorganization Patterns in Aphasia

in

Deans' Stroke Musing

Introduction Movie Mark Ittleman using Teaching of Talking Method Stroke Patients with Aphasia

Mark A. Ittleman
The Teaching of Talking

Published on Apr 24, 2012

Mark Ittleman, The speech pathologist who can make a rock talk conducts a seminar in Houston Texas to demonstrate the Teaching of Talking Method. Ittleman has just published a revolutionary approach to speech therapy with those who have aphasia and voice difficulties. His book is entitled The Teaching of Talking: Learn to do expert speech therapy at home with children and adults.

This Introduction to the Teaching of Talking Method showcases Mark Ittleman, as he relates and stimulates speech and language. He is focused and engaging and shows that speech therapy can be done anywhere without a lot of papers, notebooks, or impersonal computers. What is important is the stimulation of an interchange of speaking around a person's interests and passions. Stop by our website at http://www.teachingoftalking.com/ and order your copy of Teaching of Talking.


Standard YouTube License @ MakeRocksTalk's channel

See the original article:

Introduction Movie Mark Ittleman using Teaching of Talking Method Stroke Patients with Aphasia

in

The Teaching of Talking

Stroke Rehabilitation - Language

Dick Burns
Live or Die: A Stroke of Good Luck

May 20, 2012

You're reading number Nine in this series examining the physical problems that stroke survivors must face and conquer as he or she progresses through recovery:  lost movement of body and limbs, lost skills of daily living, meeting the obligations of life.  Please note that we refer to "survivors," not "victims" and always remember that problems can really be opportunities.

Let's first discuss the problems of speaking and understanding language.  The medical tern is "aphasia."

At least one quarter of all stroke survivors experience some form of language impairment.  It may involve the the ability to speak, convey thoughts properly (the brain knows but communication with the mouth doesn't "sync." and the thoughts cannot be conveyed properly),  write or even understand the spoken or written language.  Damage to the left side of the brain (for right-handed individuals and even some left-handed) causes what is called "expressive aphasia" and the individual loses the ability to speak the words he/she is thinking and to put words together in a coherent manner  In contrast, damage to the language center in the rear of the brain results in "receptive aphasia" and people with this disorder have difficulty understanding written or spoken language and often have incoherent speech.  (they may have grammatically correct sentences but the words together are often devoid of any meaning. And the most severe form, called "global aphasia" represents damage to many areas of the brain and people with this complication lose all their abilities to understand language or convey any thoughts.  

Sounds pretty awful and daunting but please take it from one who's been there (I guess I had all three):  I'm able to write this blog.  After time I taught and gave presentations and speeches.   Always remember, nothing is impossible if you have hope and the knowledge and willingness to take on one problem at a time, make it well and then move on to the next.

Eventually you'll make everything, and you, well.

Dick Burns
http://www.liveordieburns.com/

See the original article:

Stroke Rehabilitation - Language

in

Live or Die: A Stroke of Good Luck

‘Not Just for a Month’

Sas Freeman

June 2, 2014

The Stroke Awareness month of May 2014 has drawn to a close for another year, but our contact with the general public with messages creating greater awareness of stroke should continue to be broadcast and shared.

The message of what stroke is, how it can be prevented and the changes people can make to their lifestyles should be kept alive. Why should it sit on the back burner for 11 months?

I believe if greater awareness continues and the general public make small changes to their life styles, the long-term result would be fewer strokes. The knock on effect would be fewer families’ lives being turned upside down overnight from being hit by the devastation of stroke.

The realisation that the survivor may, as a result no longer be able to work, when they still long to, no longer able to be the parent they have been and still long to be. Instead of the stroke survivor looking after the family, the family now has to look after the survivor or become carers.

Outside the family unit, stroke drains resources within the NHS, increases the cost of benefits, removes skilled people from the workforce, the list continues.

Survivor Guilt

Robin
Rocky Mountain Stroke Survivor

May 6, 2013

Sounds odd to have survivor guilt over something as personal as a stroke.  But a quick google search on survivor guilt turns up an article from The Brain Tumor Society on survivor guilt, so I must not be alone.  By definition, survivor guilt is experienced by those in life threatening situations who have survived.  There is an implied comparison.

It is because of this implied comparison that I experience survivor guilt at least three times a week.  On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, I do various therapies with a group of stroke survivors, all of whom are worse off than me.  Some have aphasia so severe that they have difficulty carrying on a simple conversation.  Many have one limb that they can’t move.  Some have difficulty walking.  Only a few are able to drive.  I see them and feel guilty for coming through my strokes as well as I have.  I can drive…though not on the freeway.  I can work…even if it’s only for a couple hours at a time.  I can appear totally normal, function as a physician, and am even taking dance classes for part of my PT.  How can I possibly complain or grieve my situation when a slightly different location for my ischemia could have resulted in their lives instead of mine?

Singing

Amy Shissler
My Cerebellar Stroke Recovery

July 5, 2013

My speech therapist wasn’t there when I told my student clinician(I do speech therapy at a university) that I’m taking singing lessons.  She was so thrilled when she found that out that she wrote me an email.  Here it is…….

Hi Amy,

Sorry I missed you last week; however, I was on vacation with my family in Hilton Head.  I spoke with Emily regarding your session and she informed me that you are now taking voice lessons.  This is great news!!!!  I am so interested to hear how you like them and if you notice any changes in your voice as a result.  There is some research on the use of music / rhythm / Melodic Intonation Therapy in the success with patients who have expressive language deficits as a result of a CVA (aphasia).  As Emily probably discussed with you, music engages the right side of the brain in the production of speech (as language and speech are primarily left brain).  This is also why we utilize “chant therapy” to engage the right brain.   This has been noticed in individuals who stutter (these individuals can sing fine; however, when they speak they may still stutter).  I look forward to discuss this with you further next week, enjoy your holiday!!!!! 

We may have to do a session of Karaoke :0)

~Annette

Now, a couple of my thoughts.  First of all, I will NEVER do karaoke, ever.  Second, it’s a good thing I chant all the time in yoga.  Third, ok………….I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my speech therapist.  She’s awesome and amazing!  Love her.  However, I’m confused about something.  In a year and a half of going to this speech therapy I have never been challenged to raise my voice high and use a higher pitch.  The reason for this is because I have a lot more control, as does everyone, at lower pitches.  My first day of the singing lessons he had me go as high as my voice could go.  But this is speech therapy it’s not singing therapy.

As Dean said once “The problem I have with Peter is that he is constrained with staying within the approved therapy guidelines. That silo is not where the breakthroughs in stroke will occur.”  No, it’s not.  You have to think outside the box, and try things that you never thought you’d try.

See the original article:

Singing

in

My Cerebellar Stroke Recovery

Aphasia pt.1

Steven H. Cornelius
Music and Stroke

Posted on January 25, 2012

In one of my first extended post-stroke remembrances (maybe four days after the event), a Massachusetts General neurology team—the hospital’s lead neurologist with residents in tow—came to see me. He asked me how I was doing.

“Okay,” I said.

Was I feeling depressed?

“No.” I said.  (As far as I could tell, I wasn’t.)

He asked if I wanted a prescription for depression.

“No.”

He began speaking to the residents, saying that depression came with stroke territory and was going to prescribe an antidepressant.

Had he not heard me?

I tried to say something, but nothing came out.

They watched me struggle.

“Unusual to have strong aphasia with a right-brain stroke,” he said to the residents.

Ten Things NOT to Say or Do to a Stroke Patient

Joyce Hoffman
The Tails of a Stroke Patient

Feb 24, 2015

This post is different. It comes directly from my book, "The Tales of a Stroke Patient." One of these situations just happened--again. I think it needs a re-print in my blog. 
--------------------

People are funny, and I don’t mean in a ha-ha sort of way. They could be neurotic, bipolar, obsessive-compulsive, anxious, or agoraphobic, just to name a few types. Some of the ones who came to visit me had their own type: dysfunctional-when-meeting-a-stroke-patient.

Even though they had good intentions, in all fairness to me, some of them said and did things that were downright insulting, if I took the comments and body language personally. But I didn’t, for those people who took the time and came to visit me.

In all fairness to them, how could they know the right responses from the wrong. What it really comes down to is this: How do you speak to a stroke patient who’s had her life turned around in a 180-degree spin?

I made a list of the top ten things you should never say or do to a stroke patient, and I, too, have been guilty of most of them before having my stroke when I visited stroke patients.

So having set the record straight, here goes.

1. Saying ‘good girl’, ‘good boy’, ‘good job’

Those are phrases you should say to your pets when they are being rewarded with a “Pup-Peroni” or Doritos’ chips. If you say them to me, I am not really being a good “anything.” I’m just sayin’. IT’S SORT OF CONDESCENDING. 

What Happened to My Book?

24 February 2015

fleur de lis

Confession: I rarely ever do this, but I am reposting this article from my other blog because it took me forever to produce. I started writing this post today originally with a completely different intention. I'm familiar with the practice of letting my words carry me somewhere I never thought I'd go in the moment -- welcome to writing and the art of conversation -- so I surrendered to it. I promise this post has a point, so please be patient and let it unfold.

After my junior year in Florence, I decided to change my major to Italian (that way, the culture classes I’d taken wouldn’t have been for nothing -- this was an attempt to speed my degree along, though we obviously know that didn’t work). And then I declared myself pre-med, which was ironic considering the fact that my dad had been trying to coerce me into becoming an MD since I was six and I was always all, “I wanna be an artist! An author! A teacher!”

No. This time, I wanted to become a doctor because I’d been overcome with gratitude for the doctors I’d had at the University of Chicago Hospitals, who had saved my life and my spirit when I’d been hospitalized for the stroke. The staff I met there was so genuinely heart-centered, so beautiful in their service that I loved them all and thought of them often. I felt that if I could touch a single person in my life in the way they had touched mine, it would make my time on Earth worthwhile.

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