Dysphasia Treatment

By Author: Sulamita Berrezi
Total Articles: 115
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Dysphasia is frequently diagnosed while the patient is being treated for injury to the brain, be it from trauma or disease. The health professional, typically a neurologist, will conduct standard cognitive tests, including tests to determine whether the patient's language centers have been affected. If the patient exhibits signs of difficulty communicating, they will often be referred to a speech-language pathologist. In turn, the pathologist will conduct a comprehensive examination of the patient's ability language and comprehension skills. This examination may begin with evaluating the patient's ability to repeat words and phrases, recognize and describe objects, and comprehend what is said to them. More extensive and standardized language-based tests may be required, including the Porch Index of Speech Ability and the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination. Based on the result of the examinations, the health professional will be able to determine the type of dysphasia inflicting the patient. More extensive damage may require the use of computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging for an effective diagnosis.
Initially ...
... it is necessary to treat and stabilize the injury underlying the development of the patient's dysphasia. In some cases, such as with damage caused by TIA, a full recovery can be expedient and take only a few days. Unfortunately, most dysphasias can take months, if not years, to recover from. Even after prolonged therapy, many patients never achieve a full recovery. Efficacy of treatment greatly depends on the promptness with which it begins. For this reason, many medical facilities have speech-language pathologists on staff to begin the initial treatment process as quickly as possible.
There is no medical or surgical cure for dysphasia. Treatment, instead, relies strongly upon the use of various speech therapies. Much like physical therapy strengthens muscles and bones back to normalcy, speech therapy allow the patient to regain language function, as well as rebuild their communications skills. Treatment is typically conducted with a trained speech therapist. Group sessions are common and allow the patient to practice their language skills in a non-threatening environment with others sharing their disability. Although much of therapeutic work is conducted by a speech therapist, friends and family also play a vital role in the patient's recovery. They can help the patient continually practice and exercise language skills while outside the therapeutic setting. Many times, family members are included on therapy sessions to teach them how to communicate with and understand the patient.
There are several treatments available, which utilize the patient's remaining language abilities to rebuild and compensate for those that were lost. These include out-put focused therapy (stimulation-response), psycholinguistic therapy (cognitive), cognitive neurorehabilitation, and combinations thereof. Although these treatments approach aphasia differently, they all share a common thread by identifying the specific communication deficits and then targeting them with various modalities (computer-aided therapy, picture cards, reading and writing exercises, speech practice, etc.). These techniques stimulate the various parts of the brain associated with language, memory, and understanding, and thus allow it to heal.