Speech Therapy for Traumatic Brain Injury Recovery

If you’ve recently had a rough accident you may have suffered a traumatic brain injury.

You might feel scared or unsure of what’s next because of what happened and the resulting injury.

Traumatic brain injuries, also called TBIs, usually come from a sudden traumatic event.

They may lead to you experience anything from difficulty with the muscles that control your swallowing to frustrating memory issues.

The road to recovery from a traumatic brain injury can be a complicated one.

But there’s help available.

For any speech, language, or swallowing difficulties, an adult speech therapy can help.

Our Washington DC speech therapists can assist you with everything from your memory issues to apraxia of speech caused by your brain injury.

Read on to find out more about traumatic brain injuries and how speech therapy can benefit you.

What Is Considered Traumatic Brain Injury?

A traumatic brain injury that happens suddenly, in which the damage occurs all at once.

This could be from a bump to the head, a fall, or something piercing the skull.

Swelling and seizures can occur if you have a TBI, and they can lead to problems swallowing, speaking, and thinking.

What Are Symptoms Of A Brain Injury?

The symptoms of a traumatic brain injury can be unpredictable.

They depend on what part of your brain was injured.

Then can be physical, behavioral, or sensory.

From a speech therapy perspective, they can affect your ability to speak and understand language, social cues, and sensory input.

You might even have trouble swallowing, communicating, or cognitive difficulties.

Physical symptoms might include fainting, headaches, dizziness, or vomiting.

You might become more sensitive to light or notice some muscle weakness.

Learning new information could become more difficult, and things like problem solving or setting advanced goals could feel like a monumental task when before it was simple.

Sudden mood swings may occur, and it might feel like your emotions are more on the surface than usual.

It’s common to be more easily made angry, sad, or anxious.

What Are Possible Causes Of A Traumatic Brain Injury?

Examples of causes that lead to traumatic brain injuries could include car accidents, a sudden fall, running into something, or a violent assault.

Injuries that happen while playing sports or in military duty can also lead to traumatic brain injuries.

The most common accidents that cause traumatic brain injuries are car and motorcycle accidents.

It’s less common, but if you come close to drowning, you might also experience a traumatic brain injury.

If you’ve had a traumatic brain injury before you are more susceptible to having another one in the future.

As well, once you’ve had a TBI any injury to your head becomes more serious.

How Does Traumatic Brain Injury Cause Speech Problems?

TBIs can affect the areas of your brain that control your speech, facial expressions, and swallowing.

Traumatic brain injuries can also affect the part of your brain that control language and cognition.

All of these affect your ability to communicate and speak.

For all of these reasons a speech therapist can assist you in adapting to the challenges you’re facing.

Whether it’s your memory or your ability to control your throat that’s been most affected by your injury, your speech therapist will know the best exercises to assist you.

Let’s talk more in depth about some of the challenges you might face and how speech therapy could help.

1. Apraxia Of Speech

Apraxia of speech is a condition that many people with traumatic brain injuries face in the aftermath of their injury.

If you have this condition you might have trouble saying the words you want to, even though you can think of them.

It’s like the syllables and sounds don’t come out quite right.

Your speech therapist might give you exercises to slow down your speech so you can concentrate on pronunciation.

2. Dysarthria

Dysarthria is when there’s damage to the nerves in your brain that control muscles involved in speech.

It’s commonly caused by TBI, but it can also be caused by stroke, cerebral palsy or other brain disorders.

This could lead to your speech being slurred, or sounding like you’re mumbling all the time.

Your speech therapist can help improve your ability to be understood.

This would involve coordinating your lip and tongue movements in a deliberate way.

3. Difficulty With Social Skills

If you’re having trouble keeping up with conversations because of your TBI, that could make you feel like your social skills are atrophying.

You might need to relearn social skills that used to feel simple – like paying attention to nonverbal body language and the proper responses during conversations.

As well, emotional regulation can be difficult after TBI, which can make these situations more difficult as well.

Your speech therapist can help here as well.

4. Difficulty Focusing

Difficulty focusing is common with people who’ve experienced a traumatic brain injury.

But that doesn’t mean you’re stuck with a wandering mind forever.

Your speech therapist can work with you to retrain your brain to focus and stay on task.

This is important as you return to your daily life, routine, and work.

It’s also important to stay focused as you go through your therapy and recover, and your speech therapist will be there to keep you on task every step of the way.

5. Difficulty With Memory

It’s hard to speak or communicate if you’re having memory problems, because language involves memory.

With suggestions from your speech therapist you can use memory aids to help you process information.

They may have you keep a journal or calendar or use your phone or device to help you keep track of your day to day activities.

Book Your Appointment With Voz Speech Therapy Today

If you’ve recently experienced a traumatic brain injury, it can be a stressful experience.

But you don’t have to go through it alone.

Here at Voz Speech Therapy we’re ready to help you rebuild your communication skills so you can get back to doing the things you love.

Don’t hesitate, book your appointment with Voz Speech Therapy today.