Why does stroke affect speech

I couldn't move, and basically I, I could understand what she was saying, she started shouting at me trying to get me to talk and I couldn't. They then called a doctor who came and started shouting at me as well and so there was a bit of commotion and I could, I was only trying. I just felt like I was inside this box looking out and I was just trying to communicate with my eyes and they didn't understand what I was doing, why I wasn't saying anything it wasn't really until the morning that it had become clear that I'd actually had a stroke in the night.

It was scary I've never, I have never felt as scared in my entire life. You don't appreciate how easy it is for people to talk to you and for you to talk back to them until something like that happens.

The stroke was on the left side of my brain and it was fortunately just a very minor one. His speech was initially very slurred due to muscle weakness. He has ongoing problems regulating So was your, sorry, was your speech affected at all? At first, it was. Certainly in the acute hospital, those first 3 weeks but when I got to the rehab ward, it was a bit better. But first off, it was just sort of slurry and a bit difficult to understand but after a while, it, I don't know, I'm not quite sure what, I think I just got used to how it was and adapted to the differences so then I could certainly make myself understood.

So I was lucky from that point of view that I could communicate OK. Would you say that your voice has changed at all? Since the stroke? Yes, it has. Can, can you explain that? Well, people that know me from beforehand will say my voice, I don't sound different but certainly my concentration's not as good as it used to be. Sometimes I will just loose my way in a sentence, I'll just lose my way in a sentence and forget what I was going to say. So I don't think my conversation is as fluent as it used to be and I think sometimes I think I get a bit anxious and I try and rush what I'm saying and speak very quickly and another thing that I found is adjusting how loud, the volume of my voice.

I find that difficult to do, to talk louder or quieter. It just tends to be whatever comes out is what it is. And also my singing voice has changed because before the stroke when we were growing we used to quite often go to karaoke evenings.

I used to like singing in the karaoke but that's not, I'm not as good a singer any more either. I won't do a demonstration but believe me, I'm not. I think just the vocal range of my voice is much more limited than it used to be. So it has affected it. She had previously been a teacher and felt that not being able to talk or understand people and After perhaps a week or maybe 2 weeks later, I'm not quite sure, I was taken left out of hospital and fortunately I could walk, move, I could eat and from those several aspects were good for me.

Later, unfortunately, I couldn't understand when other people spoke to me still. I couldn't read, I couldn't write, I couldn't listen. I was totally and utterly exhausted and throughout my life I had only been a person who could have a lot of energy and wanted to chat. Anyway, the worst was that I couldn't speak properly to anyone or really understand it and I felt oddly drunk.

Anyway, my life previously I had always been a teacher. I had even received higher up, up to an MA in looking at Hebrews in Religious Studies, but previously I had, I couldn't even look in the Bible or anything and in my belief.

There was nothing. In studying with second children or looking at any subject, everything became nothing. Just nothing. My life, as you can imagine, totally changed. Her speech therapist explained that she had been left with a communication problem which made it And you said you wanted to see a speech therapist locally.

Can you just go through how long you had to wait and what you do when you go to see her? Okay, I went to, as I said when I was in hospital, I was seen by the speech therapist on the ward but I live quite a way from the hospital and I wanted to see somebody who was more local to me. Unfortunately she only has one adult clinic a week in my local town and we had to I had to wait about six months from the day of the stroke until I got a, an appointment with her.

So the first time that I saw her I'd already come on a huge amount in my speech and when she first met me she really didn't see anything that was wrong in my speech but I know myself, that I was struggling with certain things. She described it as quite high level the things that I was still struggling with.

But if she was to say, name me five emotions I would probably come up with happy and sad and wouldn't be able to give her another meaning or another word you know, she would say, 'Name me five zoo animals or pieces of fruit', and I would really struggle to name five of those things still because my word dictionary was still quite muddled.

She would ask me to give her an alternative word for, 'Give me another word for beautiful', and I would struggle to find another word that would mean that. So when I'm trying to help my child with his homework I am, you know, learning myself with his English and his literacy it was really helping me, helping him. His wife explains that he can still speak Tamil and uses this when he talks with the family but And do you find that it's easier to talk in Tamil than it is in English?

Husband' Yes. Tamil go-good Wife' English is hard. Second language is always hard. But he, now he's more anxious to know, he wanted to talk English more than Tamil because he thinks he's OK with Tamil, communicate with me and the child. Then he go out or he want to be more independent, he wanted to go out and do the shopping or he wanted to go himself anywhere, he wanted to talk to other people but he need English. So he's thinking if someone could help me or some, or somehow I have to talk English, and he's, very anxious nowadays.

It's really hard for him. Between the family, do you mainly talk in Tamil? Wife' Tamil, yes. Husband' Hmm. Wife' Mm hmm. He was still able to sing and pray as these long established functions of language are controlled Wife' But what he says, he always the, says the prayers all the time.

The prayers comes one by one. He used to sing in, in the temple festival, he used to sing. All the prayers come one by one but he couldn't bring the words, you know, sentence clearly. Then I ask the doctor why it's like that.

Then they said the prayers in the different part of the brain, like singing prayers is different speaks. You have to bring words together. That's part of the brain is damaged for him they say.

So with the prayers, can you still speak the, the prayers? You may practice using words and sentences that gradually get longer and more complex. If you have dysarthria , you may do exercises to improve the strength and coordination of your speech muscles.

You may practise speaking slowly or loudly and exaggerating your speech. You may use a voice amplifier to make your voice louder. While most recovery takes place in the first few months, you can continue to improve for years. After you leave hospital, you can join an aphasia group to practice your communication.

The more you practice, the more you will improve. Communication difficulties after a stroke can make it hard to connect with the people around you. It can be difficult to provide information to your treating team and to ask questions. It can be difficult to communicate how you are feeling. Communication difficulties can be frustrating and isolating, and people with communication difficulties are at even greater risk of depression than other stroke survivors. If you think depression or anxiety may be an issue for you, speak to your doctor.

Email strokeline strokefoundation. EnableMe: stronger after stroke enableme. To find a speech pathologist Speech Pathology Australia Call speechpathologyaustralia. Australian Aphasia Association Call aphasia. For more information visit the EnableMe resource topic on Speech and language.

Where am I? Home What we do For survivors and carers After stroke fact sheets Communication after stroke. Communication after stroke What you need to know After a stroke, you may have difficulty speaking. It may also be difficult to understand others when they speak or gesture to you. Reading and writing may be difficult. Your speech pathologist will work with you to develop a rehabilitation program.

Problems tend to be worse in the first few weeks and will improve quite quickly within the first three to six months. However, people continue to recover for months and even years after this. For most people, getting better is about returning to the way they were before their stroke. Being able to speak again is particularly important for a lot of people. Lots of stroke survivors continue to live full and happy lives, even though they still have problems with communication.

A speech and language therapist can help you to improve your speech, reading and writing as much as possible. They can also help you to learn other ways to communicate.

These are known as compensation or coping strategies. They include anything from gestures to electronic devices — anything that can help you get across what you want to say.

Using the results of the assessment, the therapist will set up regular sessions to work with you. This may start in the hospital, or be arranged for when you return home.

Your communication will only improve with practice, so the work you put in outside of your therapy sessions is just as important. Afasic Supports children and young adults with a communication disability, as well as their parents and the professionals working with them. Has a network of support groups, publications, training and online message boards.

Aphasia software finder This website has information about software programs and apps for people with aphasia in the English language. Also offers useful resources, materials and therapeutic ideas for people with aphasia. Aphasia Alliance Offers information, top tips and useful resources.