How to Regain Speech after Stroke Faster

If you or your loved one need to recover speech after a stroke, you can benefit from these simple tips. 

Regaining lost speech is one of the most important aspects to your stroke recovery.  Without speech it is difficult to communicate your wants and needs or understand your survivor's wants and needs.

The good thing is, the majority of survivors regain their speech after stroke, many completely.

For some it happens quickly and for others it takes alot longer.

So as a stroke survivor or family member, what can you do?  How can you reduce the time it takes to recover speech after stroke?

Here are a few tips for recovering your speech after stroke:

For stroke survivors:

• Practice.  Don't be afraid of having a go.  The more you practice the harder your brain will work at recovering your speech.  Try and say a new word several times before letting a family member say it for you.  Practice the exercises from therapy as much as your therapist tells you and more
• Get involved in conversations.  It may be hard at first, so start with your family and close friends.  Start with easy words.  Then as you gain confidence, get more active at saying what you want to 
• Try new words.  If there's a word you want to say, say it.  Don't wait for your therapist to teach you how.  Have a go yourself.  Some words you will learn without help if you try. 
• Try something new!  If speech therapy isn't working as fast or as well as you want it to, take a look at other options.  There are other therapies that help speech recovery after stroke.  You can use them with or instead of speech therapy.  This is helpful if you need 3 days of therapy and your health fund will only give 2.

 For Family, Caregivers and Friends of Stroke Survivors with Aphasia or Apraxia

• Stroke speech recovery can be a lot of work!  Stroke survivors can get discouraged when they don't see results immediately.  You need to encourage them.  Often they are so close to the word they want.
• Help them practice their stroke speech activities.  This will help your stroke survivor recover their speech faster.  Make sure they practice several times each day.
• Give your stroke survivor time to talk.  Don't fill in their sentences, and don't pressure them to respond.  Let them have a few attempts at saying what they want to say.
• Congratulate them on their progress!  Speech recovery after stroke is an amazing feat and deserves recognition.
• Say positive, encouraging things about your survivor's stroke speech recovery.  Remember when you're talking to friends and family that they can hear you!  Have the attitude that they are improving
• Search for more information and try new things.  As helpful as medical approaches and speech therapy may be, there's more out there.  Don't be left behind.  Sometimes it takes more than what your doctor prescribes to get the recovery you want  

Do you want more great stroke recovery tips?  Then sign up for our free eCourse, "7 days to a Better Stroke Recovery" by entering your information below.