Speech therapist-aphasiologist is a useful profession, of which a huge number of inhabitants, not related to the world of medicine, are not even aware. Nevertheless, everyone needs to know about this profession, because the services of this specialist can restore the quality of life after injuries and pathologies.
Who is an aphasiologist?
If the concept of a speech therapist is familiar to everyone, but not everyone knows what a speech therapist is an aphasiologist. Like a speech therapist, an aphasiologist is engaged in the restoration of speech function. The methods of their work, techniques and techniques are very similar to each other. But the difference between these professions is that the aphasiologist deals with people who have lost their speech as a result of damage to the speech areas of the brain.
Who needs a specialist?
A speech therapist-aphasiologist is needed for people who have lost their speech as a result of the following pathologies:
- traumatic brain injury;
- neuroinfection;
- brain tumor;
- brain surgery;
- other diseases.
Sometimes, as a result of these diseases and injuries, a person loses the ability to speak partially or completely coherently. In order to restore speech, thereby improving the patient's communication skills and quality of life, a special individually designed rehabilitation program is needed. This is exactly what a speech therapist-aphasiologist does.
What disorders does the specialist treat?
The concept of "speech impairment" is too broad a definition. To fully appreciate the front work of an aphasiologist, it is important to find out what violations are.
The classification of speech lesions consists of three subspecies:
- dysarthria;
- apraxia;
- mnestic and semantic violations.
And each of these subspecies should be considered in detail to understand how different manifestations of aphasia can be. And, therefore, the approach to each patient should be strictly individual.
Dysarthria
Speech is a complex process in which not only the vocal cords are involved, but also the muscles of the face, breathing, and the area of the brain — the speech motor analyzer. With brain damage, speech can disappear completely - in this case there is a reason to talk about such a severe phenomenon as anarthria. With dysarthria, a person retains the ability to speak, but his speech becomes obscure, slurred, inarticulate.
In order to eliminate the disease, it is not enough just to develop speech with special training. Treatment includes patient observation by neurologists, psychiatrists, functional studies for diagnosis and in order to control the treatment (EEG, brain MRI, EMG, ENR). It is important to find out the type of dysarthria depending on the specific area of the brain lesion, which entailed a change in speech quality:
- bulbar - due to atony of the muscles of the mouth, speech is slurred and simplified;
- pseudobulbar - muscle hypertonicity or even paralysis does not make it possible to raise the tip of the tongue;
- subcortical - unconscious muscle contractions lead to involuntary cries and spasms of articulation .;
- cerebellar - a violation of the coordination of the speech process leads to the fact that speech becomes either harsh and noisy, then slow and slurred;
- cortical - a violation of articulatory motility makes speech incomprehensible or completely deprives a person of the opportunity to speak.
Also, a speech therapist-aphasiologist should classify dysarthria depending on the severity of symptoms.
I degree | Speech defects are almost invisible to others, and only with a special examination can deviations in the patient's speech be revealed. |
II degree | The patient's speech is understandable and intelligible, but some defects that distort speech are present and visible to others. |
III degree | The patient’s speech is confused, incomprehensible, the words uttered by him can be understood only by very close people or specialists who work with him. |
IV degree | Speech is incomprehensible or even completely absent. |
Apraxia
With apraxia, a person is deprived of the ability to reproduce certain movements and talk as a result of such pathologies as stroke, tumor, brain injury, Alzheimer's disease, Huntington and others.
There are many classifications of apraxia, which make up the diagnosis:
- according to the type of the parties of defeat: unilateral or bilateral;
- on the localization of brain damage: frontal, cortical, motor, bilateral and premotor;
- by type of disorder: amnestic, oral, kinesthetic, articulatory, acinesthetic, afferent, constructive, ideokinetic, ideator and spatial.
Given the variety of manifestations of apraxia and the fact of the presence of organic lesions, a nephrologist, physiotherapist, social worker, speech therapist-aphasiologist should work on the patient. Speech restoration is a long process, and even small progress can be safely considered a good result.
Mnestic and semantic speech disorders
Semantic speech disorders are observed in lesions of the parietal and occipital parts of the brain. This pathology differs from others in that the patient ceases to understand the meaning of certain words: adverbs, proverbs, sayings, winged expressions, designations of relationship kinship, or the duration of time periods.
Thus, the patient’s speech becomes scarce, dry, a significant reduction in vocabulary leads to the fact that speech, even clearly pronounced, is difficult to understand in the general context.
The mnestic type of speech impairment occurs when the temporal lobes of the brain are affected. A feature of this type of aphasia is the defeat of auditory-speech memory. That is, each new word heard erases from the memory the previous words heard. Sometimes the patient repeats only the first and last word from each sentence heard.
These types of aphasia are closely associated with impaired mental activity. That is, in other cases, a person can retain all cognitive functions - the ability to remember, perceive and process information, but has difficulty directly with speech. In the same case, the patient’s cognitive abilities are as impaired as speech.
How does an aphasiologist work?
The services of a speech therapist-aphasiologist are required immediately after a thorough diagnosis has been carried out with an explanation of the causes of speech impairment. Doctors draw up a treatment plan for the patient, which necessarily includes observation by an aphasiologist. After the neurological examination is completed and the acute phase of the disease is eliminated, the specialist in speech restoration is the main doctor with whom the patient collaborates.
The interaction between the aphasiologist and the patient should be long and close. The specialist must provide the patient with the necessary psychological assistance in order to maintain motivation in him to continue treatment and fight to restore the quality of his life.
The doctor selects a set of exercises for each person individually. In order not to tire the patient and maintain his interest in classes, you need to start with easy and simple exercises. Lessons should not last longer than 10 minutes.
As the patient gets used to the exercises, they can be increased up to 40 minutes a day. In addition, it is important that loved ones continue to work with the patient at home, or that he himself repeats the exercises at a convenient time for him.
Exercise example
The aphasiologist has in his arsenal a huge number of exercises, of which he makes up a complex for a specific patient. But to understand what approximately exercises the patient will have to perform under the supervision of a speech therapist-aphasiologist, it is necessary to bring a few of them.
- Lick your lips, slowly pulling your tongue to the right, then left. Continue the exercise with circular rotations of the tongue across the lips.
- Try to twist the tongue into a tube.
- Open your teeth, but close your lips tightly. The tongue is slowly pushed between the teeth, then between the lips.
- Alternately reach for the tip of the tongue to the nose, then - to the chin.
- Smacking loudly, portray a kiss on the lips.
At first glance, these exercises are very simple even for a person with a serious brain damage as a result of an injury, stroke or disease. But in fact, these exercises have colossal work - the creation of new neural connections in the brain. The brain has reserves in the form of idle neurons. When performing a set of special exercises, new neural connections are created, and as they are created, a person again masters speech skills.
Call a specialist at home
Calling a speech therapist-aphasiologist at home is often a necessity. For example, if a person is immobilized or has difficulty moving.
When choosing a speech therapist-aphasiologist at home, reviews are of paramount importance. After all, you need to be sure not only of the competence of a specialist, but also of his integrity.
But finding a good doctor who can conduct classes at home at the patient, you can quickly make progress in treatment. The patient will be in a comfortable environment for him, will not be tired of the road to the medical center.
The only drawback of the method is that not every city can find a specialist who will work on the speech of his patient on its territory. That is, finding a speech therapist-aphasiologist in St. Petersburg or Moscow is unlikely to be difficult, but residents of small towns will have to work hard to find a doctor.
Training
An aphasiologist is a promising and important profession. Restoring a person’s quality of life after a stroke or trauma is an important part of professional activity and social relationships. Therefore, mastering this profession will give a chance to people who have suffered brain damage to return to normal life.
Speech therapist-aphasiologist courses are designed specifically for speech therapists who can improve their skills. In the classes, future aphasiologists will learn how to choose the right program for speech restoration depending on the type of aphasia, master all the necessary exercises, and gain psychological preparation skills for working with patients.
After the completion of the educational process, students will be tested, and, in the case of a positive result, will receive certificates of advanced training, and can study the job of a speech therapist-aphasiologist in the labor market.
Distance learning
For residents of those cities in which there are no full-time courses for training aphasiologists, there is an opportunity to obtain the necessary skills remotely. Those who wish can get all the necessary knowledge through the study of theoretical information and videos. Most courses that can be found on the Internet have a more loyal price compared to full-time courses.
In addition, distance education of speech therapists-aphasiologists often does not require any base. That is, each person can go through training as part of a common development or to help a loved one who has lost his speech as a result of brain damage.
Thus, the aphasiologist is involved in the treatment of people who have lost their speech skills as a result of the disease, along with neurologists. The speed of rehabilitation of the patient, and the quality of his whole future life depend on the professionalism, patience and talent of the doctor.