[0:00] Welcome to Artful aging with your host Amy are you a senior or a caregiver of a senior looking for support and Direction best-selling author educator and expert in Senior Living Amy Friesen is here,
with the help you need while providing you with an important and valuable support,
so now please welcome the host of Artful aging Amy Friesen.
[0:27] Good morning everyone I'm Amy Friesen and this is Artful aging with Amy thanks so much for joining me today we're live from Bold Brave TV.
According to National Aphasia Association 84.5% of people have never heard of the term aphasia.
This is what we're going to be speaking with to speaking about today,
I am a team at tea and toast work with individuals who have Aphasia and their families quite regularly and it doesn't always produce the same and individuals and additionally if they just not always caused by stroke which is why a lot of people think,
my guest today is joining us from the American speech-language-hearing Association Brooke Hatfield is a speech-language pathologist with over 20 years of experience working with people
who have Aphasia in the community and other community sorry and other Communications disorders from stroke to brain injuries and rebuild Rehabilitation and Community settings sorry my my tongue is Twisted today so in her current role.
Box and that's the work of speech language Pathologists in healthcare settings by connecting clinicians to current research and professional trends
welcome Brooke thanks so much for joining us today so it's such a pleasure to be here and thanks for the opportunity to talk about aphasia.
[1:45] I'm so happy to have you like I said we work with folks who have Aphasia all the time and I really wanted to help educate our community
through a conversation with you just about what aphasia is so maybe we could start off by telling our audience what a speech language pathologist does,
sure so speech language Pathologists or slps or in some settings and might just be called speech therapist.
Work whenever there's a problem with communication or thinking or feeding and swallowing,
so you'll find slps across the lifespan so from feeding babies and NICU,
all the way up through working with people with dementia and skilled nursing facilities so it's a really wide range of professional skill sets but particularly for people with aphasia,
speech language pathologist help enhance communication through activities and exercise to help rebuild skills,
and also do a lot of family training to help kind of that communication environment improve in addition to the the person's individual skills.
[2:47] I think that you know having to adapt with someone who does have Aphasia and it's like a whole family environment right it's not just the one person as aphasia
it's everybody and how they all work together
and I'm thinking also on a side note that's probably why I'm having a speech problem today because we're talking about that and I'm tripping over my words which is interesting,
why Burke tell me why have you been drawn to work with people who have Aphasia communication is fundamentally a human right and if we,
I think one way to kind of think about it is to put yourself in that position where you're just going through your day as you are now we're having a conversation and all of a sudden something changes and you.
Communicate you know everything that you know and you have all of the same hopes and goals and relationships but you can't communicate.
That impact is so significant like you said on the family on the community and on the individual,
that when I found through working with people with Aphasia as they will fight so hard to regain that those skills and those relationships and those roles in their family that's really inspiring and it's really.
Sort of a medical puzzle to it's trying to figure out okay what does that behavior mean about what's going on in the brain and how could we find some ways to help it.
[4:02] I'm sure that it's also quite terrifying for folks right if if all the sudden they can't communicate I had an episode in college where I was under so much stress that I lost my eyesight for about a minute minute or two minutes and it scared.
You know scared me straight and luckily it came back but I can imagine that Panic that people would feel if they can't communicate all the sudden because they don't actually know why probably in that moment and then they can't communicate about not being able to communicate
must be very very stressful maybe we could talk about the different types of aphasia because there's a couple of different types of
I think that you know about and that you can tell us about maybe just to give the audience a little bit more of a rounded View,
sure so Aphasia as sort of a broad definition is a change in language because of a change in the brain.
So depending on where in the brain someone's injury or illness has occurred it can present kind of different types of aphasia.
So if we think of it in two broad categories one is nonfluent aphasia meaning that the words don't come easily.
And the other is more fluent where the words come easily but they don't have this much meaning.
[5:12] One of those is called Broca's aphasia some people will call it expressive Aphasia and really what that sounds like.
Like old-fashioned telegrams so the most important words might come out but the structure of the sentence isn't there it's just a few words.
But those words usually have a lot of impact and meaning.
[5:33] And those folks tend to have a better ability to understand what they're hearing or what they're reading and they have a harder time getting it out so harder time talking or writing.
And then the other side of the spectrum are the more fluent aphasias fluent meaning that the sounds come easily.
There's a part of the brain that sort of responsible for choosing meaning of words and that's a little bit more in the back of the brain.
When that is impaired it's sometimes called Wernicke's aphasia with a W Wernicke's.
And what that sounds like is it you feel like it you like it should make sense because it's a lot of words but the words may not be the right words for that context,
or they may not be words at all they may be sort of new combinations of sounds that sound like words but they don't have a lot of meaning.
And those folks tend to have a harder time understanding what you're saying to them.
[6:26] There's a couple of other kinds I just ate interesting out please tell us about the other ones sure yeah those are sort of the two broad categories
but then there's a couple of others one called anomic Aphasia a no Mia is the the word for when there's a word finding problem that tip of the tongue feeling that we all have from time to time.
And some more mild Aphasia has kind of turned into this anomic aphasia.
Where the words come easily except when they don't so it'll sounds like an easy conversation until someone will kind of get stuck.
Or they might need to sort of talk around their idea.
And then a Fourth Kind is called primary Progressive Aphasia and it's kind of its own little beast it's a problem,
that doesn't tend to happen all at once like the other aphasias it's something that sort of progresses over time and it's really related to sort of slower changes in the brain.
But again depending on what part of the brain is happening is involved with it it can sound like the other types of aphasia is it's just got a different course to it.
[7:29] Is there one that is more prevalent like is there one that tends to be the front runner of the main type of aphasia people have.
A great question I think the one that's most easily recognizable like if you see someone on TV or there's some sort of media representation of aphasia it's often the nonfluent kind,
where it's someone who clearly is working to talk I don't know what the statistics are of.
What kind is more prevalent than another but I think those two types of the fluent and the nonfluent are the ones that people tend to encounter the most often,
and just before we go to break or any of them specifically attached to stroke or could any of those happen with a stroke.
[8:15] Any of those can happen depending on what type of injury happens to the brain so it's more about where in the brain the problem happens not how the problem happened.
Interesting okay perfect so let's take a minute for a break we're going to continue this conversation when we come back but we're going to we're going to talk about misconceptions after the break because there's a lot of them out there I can tell you.
Take a minute grab a coffee will see you in a few minutes.
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[10:46] Welcome back to Artful aging with Amy I'm your host Amy Friesen,
on today's show my guest Brooke is helping us to understand more about Aphasia and Brooke and I were just talking about it over the break about me being tongue-tied and she apparently it's a thing that you know it's the same as if Louis,
comparing it to when I'm typing on my keyboard and then I think about the letters that I'm typing and then I can't find the letters as I'm typing without.
Just trying to communicate with you folks today apparently it's a thing so that's what Brooke and I were talking about over the break which is very interesting.
[11:17] So work there are many misconceptions that people have around Aphasia so let's debunk a couple for our audience today the first one,
that I've heard about is it many people relate Aphasia to the effects on an intelligence so somebody has Aphasia therefore their intelligence is affected can you tell us more about that,
sure the easiest thing to say about it is that's not true it's just simply not one way to think of it this is a very imperfect metaphor but I'm going to try it anyway.
That picture yourself you right now as you are dropped into a country where you don't speak the language.
You're you still know everything you know you can still problem-solve you can still plan your memory is still strong.
But the words and the way that you would communicate what you are thinking and what you're feeling and how you want to get something done would be different if you didn't speak the same.
[12:11] And that's again a bad analogy but a good example of the fact that language is its own system and we use our language to drive.
Our thinking and our how we get things done throughout the day but it's.
[12:27] When there's a change in the language it doesn't mean there's a change in all of the rest of the personality it's interesting yeah because you know
we would assume because we can see something on the outside that something on the inside would be equally affected right that's my my not my night gets weak again right it's crazy
my analogy that's not so great but it is a good way to explain it right is to be able to go into another country because a lot of us have that experience and not being able to speak the language so that
it's good way to explain it for sure how about so many people think that Aphasia is rare and it only happens because of a stroke can you tell us a little bit more about that is that accurate.
[13:10] It's associated with the stroke so let's start with that piece of it so it's stroke is the most common cause of aphasia the most common source of aphasia because if we think about what Strokes are Strokes or changes in blood flow in the brain and,
the brain is where our language lives.
[13:28] But any injury that happens to the brain can also cause a stroke so there are people who have had a sorry I can cause Aphasia there are people who've had Aphasia from,
the congresswoman Gabby Giffords is a great example she has Aphasia and that was from a gunshot wound.
They're people who had brain tumors who have Aphasia or who have a traumatic injury to the brain that have aphasia.
And then this primary Progressive Aphasia tends to come from those degenerative are slowly changing processes in the brain that sort of follow the same path as something like dementia.
[14:06] Your other point was about whether Aphasia is rare we wish it was but it's not there are about 180 thousand people a year in the u.s. who acquire aphasia.
That makes about two million people walking around with it.
That's a pretty high number there are more people with Aphasia than more than people with Parkinson's that we just aren't as familiar with.
What aphasia is and worry.
Always looking for good ways to continue to get the word out like this conversation so that people at least have heard it and if you encounter someone with Aphasia you feel a little more equipped about what to do or how to respond to that person and support them.
That's why.
[14:47] Please folks right because it's also again it's not super visual unless you're speaking with someone it's not a visual something that's happening so it's
you know less people speak about it and when I said that start at the top of the show I was really surprised to that you know a lot of people don't even know the word right and I
I mean I have been working in my field almost 20 years so I'm very familiar with the word but I wonder you know if I wasn't in this field I was in something else
would I have known what aphasia is Right unless I had happened personally in my family which I thought was really interesting.
What about is as Aphasia something that does improve or is it one of those things that once that happens you know it completely goes downhill and disintegrates afterwards.
[15:33] Yeah it's a fish is definitely something that improves over time we need to take primary Progressive aphasia,
turned out of this conversation because it has a different path based on the biology of it but for the other types of aphasia that are from an acquired injury.
Yeah they get better over time which is you know terrific because the brain is really going to fight every single day to rewire itself.
And every time someone tries to communicate even if they're not successful they have.
Triggered essentially some changes in the brain that will build over time and lead to some recovery.
It was a long time or doctors would tell people you got a year if you're not better in a year you're not getting better,
and we know now that through it just anecdotal experience that that just simply is not true there I've been lucky enough to know people that have.
Had their Strokes 30 some years ago and are still working at their fascia and it's still paying off their still seeing changes over time so there's always a reason to Hope,
and there's always a reason to keep working.
[16:39] That's that's pretty wild too and it's hope like you said hopeful that things can improve but just like anything you have to actually physically work towards,
making things improved we weren't talking with professional about Parkinson's last week and it's the same thing right you know you get a diagnosis.
It's not exactly the same thing but you know similar that you get a diagnosis or you have Aphasia are you have Parkinson's and,
at that point then what do you do which which way do you go do you go to try to improve your life and keep moving and improving it or do you kind of accept defeat almost right and it's like okay well I have this and that's that is what it is right like for the people that come
do people come to see you directly Brooke or they come to see speech pathologist but
is it something that they do at the you know when they first diagnosed or is it something that they do you know kind of once they figured out the route if that makes sense.
[17:39] Yeah usually when someone has had a stroke or something that happens right away that resulted in their injury.
During their hospitalization a probably see a speech language pathologist either in that acute care setting if they go on to an Inpatient Rehab setting.
Or some Post Acute setting built probably be a speech language pathologist involved if there's not ask for one because as LPS can help.
And then there's outpatient you can continue to work with an SLP it's covered by Medicare it's covered by Medicaid it's covered through private insurances so there's again reason to kind of stay connected but like you said that idea of.
Keep working therapy helps but so does life being engaged in life and I know we'll talk about that a little later on.
But really getting into making sure that you're using use it or lose it you got to communicate with people and though it's really hard and it takes a lot of effort and it's really tiring making that effort is what makes the game's over time.
[18:43] For sure and I mean as a starter you know if you just just started having Aphasia right there's
you know you want to keep going with it you know but there's also other ways to communicate with people right there's writing and texting and all sorts of different things so
there's ways to Aid in the verbalization I guess is what I'm saying so that it doesn't have to always be a struggle,
when you're communicating with someone it can be you know helped by writing it out or what not a lot of us text and,
email and things like that and so we may be getting some of the things that first and then and trying to communicate that in practice what would you say about that.
Practicing kind of what you're writing out absolutely and you know unfortunately I faiza does tend to affect the other communication modality so talking and writing and reading and and understanding kind of go together.
But trusting often there's a strength in one area that can really be capitalized on.
[19:42] Best time yeah and I didn't even realize that so that's great so let's take a break and maybe we could talk about that a little bit more when we come back,
we're going to take a break now so this is Artful aging with Amy and we're joined by Brooke today and we're on Bold Brave TV so we'll see you in a few.
[19:58] Welcome back Brooke and I have been discussing Aphasia as well some of the misconceptions.
We're going to move our conversation into being proactive and how to be proactive but I want to go back and touch on something we talked about over the break
and just before the break and it's about how Aphasia is not only
speech it affects other things like other communication tools and writing and things in your brain as well but could you tell us a little bit more about that because I was I was saying I was even really kind of unfamiliar with that as well,
sure yeah it really is a common misconception that Aphasia is just a problem of speech the language centers of the brain really house.
Meaning so one way to think of it as words are labels for meanings for ideas.
And it's the labels that are impaired how we get to those labels that match up the meaning so there are people with Aphasia that have trouble reading because they can see the word but the meaning of that word,
that the sort of link from the physical word to the idea that that word represents is broken,
because of the change in their brain so Aphasia can affect talking and listening and reading and writing but like I said usually there's one area that's a relative strength and that's what you kind of jump on and try to build some strategies around.
[21:16] Interesting yeah so I guess part of what that what people would start working right away with the speech-language would pathologist would be okay what's the strength right and let's kind of let's go from there and build right just like any building blocks okay great,
so while we're on the topic is there anything that helps to approve of improve aphasia.
Yeah there's one of the first questions people often have is is their medicine is there something I can take,
and there are some some Trials of medicines that have been ongoing things that change blood flow in the brain or sort of stimulate different parts of the brain but there's nothing yet that's out on the market that specifically for aphasia.
Same with other types of Medical Treatments there's lots of research going on there are so many people trying to crack this code,
but the thing that tends to help the most are the best tools we have right now are therapy,
and being engaged in your in your community so using the skills that you've got and what therapy often looks like is.
[22:18] Exercises and activities that help address.
Kind of getting used to this new version of your brain and trying to kind of fight your way through some of these Pathways that have been interrupted a bit.
But also like we're talking about taking that strength and saying how do you take that strength and get all of the things done that you need to do so you need to write a grocery list you need to be able to pay your taxes you need.
Tell your grandson that you love them you need to say the family prayer at dinner.
Any of those things can be sort of Taken and broken down into parts and then you try to add supports around each step of those activities.
[22:54] Interesting can someone be independent in the community can they live alone still is there a reason why they wouldn't live alone that's a great question there are people who have,
pretty significant forms of aphasia who live alone who drives who you know to.
Make their own appointments over the telephone there's a lot of,
ways to kind of get it done so the basic answer is yes but there's always a but it does take some support because there will be things that
you know I think we all know that we live in a world that maybe we're not all the most patient communicators.
And one of the best tools for people with Aphasia is time to have time to respond and for all of us communicating with them to just slow down a little bit.
And the world is not always Aphasia friendly so that's also part of what
speech language pathologist do an Aphasia Advocates to is to try to help the world kind of be a little bit of a more supportive environment but yes there there are lots of folks who have Aphasia who are independent in the community.
[24:00] I often work with individuals who have Aphasia and they're starting it,
you know they may not have been proactive enough and things may be worsening or changing or whatnot and they're considering you know when to make a move to a retirement home for instance no when's the best time we're trying to sort it out with them
and often some of the advice I give for you know anybody who is changing Healthcare that
you know for a faiza would be the communication tool right for someone who is losing their eyesight right that you know I often say you know the sooner rather than later that you can make a move into a community the better because then
not only do you adopt especially if it's eyesight really trying to know your environment but not only can you adapt but also
the staff gets to know you the staff can learn how to communicate with you we've worked with people who can use white boards or can use flash cards and things like that and then the residents also get to know you
and you become you know you can make friends that way as well and so.
My thought process and tell me your thought process but it kind of the earlier that they can get into a community and Surround themselves with engaging activities and people and whatnot before their health changes again I feel like is a good step how do you feel,
I think that's I have an absolutely cosine that I think that's absolutely what I would suggest to a client in a similar decision making process that.
[25:30] One of the the problems that tends to come alongside Aphasia as depression and part of its chemical and the reaction of the brain but there's also such an isolation that comes,
from not being an effective Communicator in the same way that you used to be.
And Social Circles tend to narrow a little bit and relationships can get a little bit either strange or they're just more challenging so.
Getting this relationships and Connections in place I think is such an important part of continuing to be
engage those relationships and to really stay connected,
and a meaningful way so getting to know people with strong language so that they can get to know you and your language system is a really important process.
Yeah and with the depression and the isolation all of us have lived through covid at this point so there's a lot of extra isolation as a lot of extra depression and really just trying to cap that so you don't go deeper into the hole but sometimes
it's difficult to get out and that's that's why we do Artful aging right it's informed people there's choices and you can do stuff and that you're not alone so I think
you know I think that's super helpful and interesting to know so why don't we take another pause here will return after the break and Brooke and I will continue our conversation
you're watching artfully doing with Amy we're on Bold Brave TV we'll see you in a few minutes.
[26:54] Welcome back Brooke and I have been discussing Aphasia let's move our conversation to what to do and what to look for if you see a change,
now as I said before I've been in the retirement home field for almost 20 years and when I was working in a retirement home at the first of my career
one of my favorite seniors one of my favorite people and I also call my seniors my peeps actually so one of my favorite peeps had a stroke
right in front of me and I've been much younger at that point in time you know what do you do right and so we were taught the acronym fast
which is face arm speech and time and that helped me to see what was happening,
you know unfortunately getting him to do anything about it as a whole other ballgame right so I kind of feel like you know of someone saying hey you might be having a stroke or what not maybe you know for a piece of information maybe take them
serious and have a look at it because you know he
he actually didn't want to go to the doctor or anything which was really tough on everybody kind of watching what was happening so Brooke maybe you could explain why the acronym face is important to look for if you suspect that someone has had a stroke.
Sure the primary reason that getting on it quickly is important is there's sort of a phrase in the medical community of people who tear take care of folks with stroke is that saving.
But is it saving time and saving brain.
[28:23] The faster somebody gets services and Emergency Medical Services the more options they have to try to either if it's a clot they can kind of help break up the clot,
but only within a certain window of time and it just means that they're kind of treating you before a lot of your brain has had a chance to,
that this brain cells have had a chance to die frankly so the reason that that acronym is important so.
You know kind of Strokes are kind of like heart attacks that happen in the brain there change of the blood flow in the brain.
And so as blood is traveling through different parts of the brain different.
[29:00] Physical things are associated with those parts of the brain so the F in fast is face one of the first signs for some types of stroke is that sort of drooping on one side so there are even Steven and then all of a sudden part of the face tends to.
To either slump a little bit or a lip won't move in quite the same way.
[29:20] And then arm a quick way to check it is to try to put your arms out in front of you and see if one arm will go higher than the other if you try to keep them even one just won't kind of make the climb.
And the same thing that's just a sign that there might be some blockage in the parts of the brain that control our movements.
And that's really in kind of a neighbor to where speech and language lives for a lot of folks.
And then let's see as speech so that slurred speech is usually what people are looking for,
but really it's that you know as we were talking about we all have tongue-tie moments this is this is more that sudden you're talking one way then all of a sudden that speech becomes really laborious or slurred or the mouth just does not want to make the sound.
And then T again is time time to call 911.
And again the importance of calling 911 rather than calling your cousin or calling you know going taking a nap and seeing if you feel better when you wake up.
It's important to call Emergency Services because emergency responders are prepared to fast-track Strokes.
That they can get you to the right places the right Trauma Centers and tell them that you're coming so that they're ready the center is ready to get your brain looked at and get you the fastest help possible.
[30:36] The other thing is if you go to bed if you just say okay well I'll see how I feel tomorrow.
That cloudy is the window of when that stroke actually happened so there's a lot of research going on now about people who wake up with their Strokes they went to bed fine and they wake up.
And they've had a stroke.
To try to figure out how long is the treatment window when you don't really know when it happened because again the more treatment options potentially the better the outcomes are.
I have to tell you it was it was a pretty wild thing.
Again I was much younger with less experience than I have now but it was pretty wild to see one of my favorite peeps doing that going through this and so I think I mean tell me how you think but I feel that.
[31:22] Educating our audience on you know.
If someone is saying that they can see something it doesn't necessarily even have to be a stroke sometimes it's some other kind of action that somebody outside of uc's.
I would feel that you know take it what you know take it seriously and look into it because sometimes.
People don't actually understand or know what's actually happening to themselves or they can't see themselves right like his.
His face was What affected and then a speech those are the two things I notice right away but he didn't really recognize that in himself.
And so would you agree that you know as
and as our audience is watching this maybe you know if someone is talking to you about something changing in your demeanor to take that serious
absolutely yeah particularly you know communication we all have ups and down days where it's easier to talk or it's easier to think of words.
And as we age it starts really I think in our 30s that that ability to think of the exact word you know it's always that after that guy that was in that thing that we liked rather than you know Brad Pitt that starts to change over time,
but it really is that when it becomes a problem when it when it really impacts what you're trying to do or when it's sudden that Sudden Change is really the thing that people can respond to.
And I can't say enough how important it is to get help if you think that that's what's happened it would be so much better to show up and be sent home because.
[32:51] Center is not tasty services and then have a whole sets of potential interventions not.
[32:58] For sure yeah and it's and I mean this is also where educating people on stroke and Aphasia and stuff because I always wondered before that happen you know what I know
but I know a stroke of I saw then it happened and it's like you definitely know it but you have to be a little bit educated and what to look for right because once you're aware of what you're looking for
then it when it happens you know like it's just it's just one of those things when you agree that it's just kind of right in front of you absolutely yeah and the other thing
that I think is a misconception is that Strokes only happen to old people they don't they happens the Ada typical age of stroke is getting younger.
And there's a type of stroke from an aneurysm so stroke is sort of an umbrella term for changes in blood flow in the brain.
But if someone has an aneurysm where a part of the brain sort of.
[33:47] It's repops basically there's a you pop a hole in your balloon and blood flows into space where it's not supposed to be that can happen very suddenly it can be very very dangerous and it can be,
anyone of any age so there's really no reason not to get treatment seek treatment if you think that something is suddenly.
[34:09] Be proactive is what I hear you and I saying and I our audience is used to me saying that right plan and proactive,
but yeah for sure we want to make sure that people hear that message so we're going to take another break,
we're going to be back and we're going to discuss prevention as you can probably expect here on artfully Jean with Amy see you in a few.
[34:29] Welcome back to Artful aging with Amy let's move our conversation to one of my favorite things is planning and prevention again you all know this about me,
and pretty much every guess I have on here is all about planning and prevention so Brooke can you tell us why managing your environment is very important.
Sure so there's a couple ways I think we can approach this from.
Prevention standpoint one is trying to prevent or to manage our environment to create the healthiest version of yourself that you can,
to reduce your risk of a cardiovascular event like a stroke the other side is if you have Aphasia how you can create an environment that really supports you.
From a cardiovascular standpoint the same things that make us healthy and all the other areas apply here so activity,
regular medical check-ups watching things like blood pressure sodium levels those kinds of things are associated diabetes management huge knowing your family history
there's another big factor.
[35:31] And then from a supported communication environment I'm like we're talking about earlier because Aphasia is a language problem not just a speech problem,
creating a space for yourself where all of the tools that you might need are around you,
so you I think you mentioned earlier whiteboards or you know notebooks those kinds of things being everywhere that you are in your environment.
Individuals with Aphasia will also sometimes carry something with them a little explainer card that says this is my name I have Aphasia I'm not drunk I'm not stupid.
This is how you can communicate with me which is really helpful if you get jammed up or if you get pulled over in your car and you get particularly nervous.
Or your kind of venturing independently in a space that maybe you haven't before.
Because as soon as someone knows what to do and how to communicate with you the whole sort of tension of a situation can reduce a little bit.
But having an environment that is.
Interactive is another important thing so read and listen and engage and connect to people.
We were talking earlier about what helps Aphasia and I neglected to mention working with other people with Aphasia is a wonderful way to to really work on it because it's you sort of learn more from each other than you do from any professional,
and it's.
[36:54] Just like any other group of like characteristics it's that sense that you're not alone in this and that that there are other people who are walking the walk with.
[37:04] That same conversation again last week with Parkinson's the like the like-minded right everybody that's dealing with Parkinson's having a support group with that.
[37:13] And I also really enjoy that tip about having like a card in your wallet or what not to tell people because.
Often I would suspect that if you're having a slurred speech problem people may think you're drunk right people may think that.
Something you want on a bender or something and that would be even frustrating on its own because then you're not being taken seriously on top of having Aphasia right so,
that'd be really tricky super frustrating and how into that what to do right so that on the back of that particles they ask me yes or no questions call my whoever your communication partner is you know there's they're sort of action steps that could be tied.
[37:52] Fair enough great how should someone communicate with another person who has Aphasia so if I'm speaking with a client who has Aphasia how what's the best way for me to communicate.
[38:02] Slowing down is something that we can all do anyway but particularly with someone with Aphasia and that doesn't mean,
taking things to an age inappropriate level so you still want to talk with that person like they're the adult that that that they are but you might choose to make your sentences a little bit shorter.
You might slow down a little bit you don't have to talk louder that's something that people kind of naturally want to do but you don't need to do that and the other thing that really helps is,
confirming so if you think that you've come to a conclusion together or that that person has expressed themselves effectively to say this is what I think I heard you said I heard you say this is that correct and giving them a chance to,
confirm that yes you've got my message or know we need to keep trying.
[38:51] Putting something on paper is so helpful a keyword so if you're figuring out that you're talking about insurance if you write that word insurance,
in our kind of pointing to it and they're pointing to it you know that you've established that topic,
and then anything else that you identified as that really important point you can write that down too so then you've got these sort of keywords that are in front of you.
Drawing helps gosh sometimes people will use computer-based systems that help support their communication.
Or communication boards or books so like.
[39:28] A communication book might have a list of everyone's family members in it so if you want to talk about your knees so you can pull that name out quickly because you know what here but you can't quite get it out.
I'm so just using lots and lots of supports to get the topic established and then confirm that you've understood.
It's also okay to say if you didn't get it that's a something that happens sometimes the somebody's trying really hard and you don't get it and everybody is getting frustrated it's okay to say,
I don't think I'm getting it right now let's take a break for a second and come back to it.
[40:01] I find it interesting as I speak to each guess and and you included that a lot of what we speak about is happening throughout our life,
whole journey and it's not always just like seniors is not just always what you know one one spot right and so when you're talking
about Aphasia in anybody write and how to communicate I'm also thinking about how I communicate with my daughter who's four and again my audience knows that I have a daughter and there's a lot of things that cross
pass with what I do for work and life and my daughter and
one of the things is that she's trying to communicate but she's just learning to communicate and so I do that with her to did you say this yes Mommy I said that or no and she gets frustrated because there's certain things that she hasn't gotten quite yet
and so I say you know did you say this and she'll say no and it'll be a couple of rounds of that and then so come up to me,
talk to me in my ear as if I can't hear her
not that I don't understand her right and it's like trying to communicate I just find it so interesting that across our lifespan we're all dealing with different stuff at different ages and different times right I just found that really interesting.
[41:14] What about perfectionist like me so,
do you have any tips for other perfectionist with they can go there the one with Aphasia or they're communicating with that person because you know we're trying to always you know perfectionist again like myself are trying to have a,
perfect conversation or trying to get that message communicated do you have any thoughts for us,
boy that tends to be one of the biggest sticking points with people particularly who really Pride themselves on the types of words that they use.
I have a client that I've worked with for a long time who has a background as an attorney and,
his training is that the right word matters right this word isn't as good as this were there's a reason that I want that exact word and letting go of that is some of the best advice of,
communication of the message is the goal not whether you used the exact word that you wanted.
So together kind of coming to that the family accepting all of that communication effort and if the goal got If the message got across you did it it didn't have to be.
[42:18] Ball with that Brooke I want to thank you so much for coming on today this has been very eye-opening for me and I hope for my audience thanks again for joining us.
You're more than welcome thanks for having me on if people want to know more they can check out our website Asha Sha dot-org.
Perfect and I'll have that link for you on Artful aging with a me.com as well after the break we'll sum up today's top tips you're watching our full aging with Amy I'll see you in a few.
[42:45] Welcome back this is Artful aging with Amy I'm your host Amy Friesen we're on Bold Brave TV today I hope that you enjoy today's show as much as I did.
I definitely got a lot more information out of it that I didn't even realize I didn't know so I'm grateful for Brooke to join us today.
So let's go over some top tips for those of you who love Coles notes my top tip today would be would be to be patient,
both as a person with Aphasia and for the person communicating with them,
it's really important just to take your time and and realize that
the person with Aphasia is doing their best to get the communication across and the person who is listening and having a communication with the person with Aphasia is doing their best as well to understand what you're saying so on both ends
just be more patient I think that in general in the world we can all be more patient,
22 would be to be proactive that's with your health keep your body and brain active make sure that you're putting things in place so that not only are you being proactive with your health but if something happens and you
do you end up having aphasia
you're seeking out ways to improve that study so that you can communicate otherwise.
[44:07] Tip 3 would be to be aware of your surroundings you never know when you're going to come across someone who's having a Health crisis so you know pay attention if you're out somewhere or you're with friends or just like me when I was working at the retirement residence.
Keep an eye on your surroundings and and and make sure that if you see something say something so you want to make sure that you know if
if you think someone is having a stroke you should speak up and not just let that happen because that person may not even realize what's happening you may or may not be right you never know but I'm sure that person would be more grateful that you said something then you didn't.
On next week's show we're going to be talking with a filmmaker and how she shaping some educational programs for seniors that should be a really great show and also about the documentary she did better grandfather.
[44:57] If you are looking for any extra
downloads or printables you could always go over to our full aging with a b.com you'll find links there you'll also find links to our guests and our upcoming shows and their bios
any other information you need could be on tea and toast as well again today was interesting because I'm even having trouble communicating and Brooke and I were talking about it on the break how it does happen when you're trying to pay attention to something very specifically so I just you know you learn something new everyday so I'm hoping
that you did as well thank you so much for joining us today on our full aging with Amy we're on Bold Brave TV and for me to you I hope you have a wonderful Wednesday.
[45:39] You've been listening to Artful aging with host Amy many folks just like you feel they're alone in their journey and helping a loved one or.
So tune in each week and let a me show you that help is around the corner and it's just one conversation away here on Artful Aging with Amy.
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