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Recovery for Patients
Aphasia is a non-progressive communication disorder. This means that your loved one's speech and language skills will not deteriorate unless more brain injury happens. The greatesxt amount of improvement, also called spontaneous recovery, usually occurs within the first few days to 6 months from the time the brain injury occurs. After this period, it goes on at a much slower pace. The rate of recovery is usually determined by factors such as the extent of injury, history of person's health, age, the motivation and willingness to recover, and whether therapy was given and what kind. There are no set rules that can ascertain the speed and extent of recovery but almost all people with aphasia improve in their language abiklities.
Aphasia happens so unexpectedly that often the person and his or her family find themselves in a situation that is unfamiliar, trying and challenging. A formerly independent person now finds himself or herself depending on others for heklp. Because of the communication difficulty, he or she may hesitate in engaging in social interactions and consequently feel isolated.
In some cases, ther is enough recovery to sufficiently allow the person with aphasia to go back to work or engage in activities he or she previously enjoyed. However, when the impairment is more severe, he or she is uable to participate in responsibilities as he or she once did. When this is the case, the person should be encouraged to try new hobbies or pursuits. The family will need to make the effort to modify their lifestyle in order to accomodate the needs of their loved one. Try to maintain a healthy balance between encouraging independence and giving help. THe ultimate goal of speech rehabilitation is for your loved one to hurdle the communication barrier by utilizing the easiest and most effective means of communication. You will have to be open to the different channels of expression like spoken words, gestures, or even drawing, or a combination of these. With rehabilitation, the person may not able to regain all the skills that have beeen lost after the brain injury, but he may learn to be involved and integrated again as a productive member of the community.
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