Hello, my dad is 2 year’s post his stroke. He has significant speech issues and can manage a couple of words. Recently I have noticed his speech using the telephone flows much easier than face to face. Has anyone any experience of this? Thank you. Jane
Speech and hearing and language are a world of their own. I dont think that medical science has worked out why or how our brains process language.
You might want to try and fathom whether Dad is having all the problems with speech or are some of the problems his hearing ? A telephone funnels the sounds to one spot and maybe thats part of the issue. Maybe Dad cant cope with the sound coming at him from all directions.
If I descibe a couple of my issues maybe it will put something in context. As soon as I was conscious after stroking, conversation was so hard. People were just making a noise at me. I had to take in that noise, recognize they were words, sort them in to order then establish what was meant. To reply I had to work out the words, sort them in to order then get my mouth to say the words. The effort was huge. I had to get my wife to stop talking and just sit with me. reading magazines, knittine, drinking tea. Anything except talking to me. Visiting times were awful. All the noise. yuk.
I graduallyy got my mouth to say te words. Then bit by bit the other functions started to work. I didnt foce them.It came backslowly. About 18 months passed and then I was substantially improved. Nowhere near the old Colin, bu a satisfactory new Colin emerged.
Part of all this was that I would crumble emotionally when I was in other premises. I couldnt make it out. Then bingo. My brain couldnt handle an echo. So any public address system would shatter my poorly brain. As soon as I identified this problem the clever brain started to coope with it. Three years on things arent too bad at all. I have just started to join in singing hymns. One at first then two and now I can do three. I try to recall that it took about 25 years for me to learn skills from birth to adulthood. So relearning isnt going to be quick. But it is happening.
Perhaps you could do a bit of lateral thinking to see what really causes dads problems. So much to learn.
Say hello to Dad from me
best wishes
Colin
Colin hi and yes I posted twice by mistake. Haven’t been on this site for quite a while and it has all changed so posted without realising twice.
Thanks your answer is really insightful and interesting. I think my dad’s hearing is ok but that could absolutely be the answer. I was over complicating and thinking about different pathways for speech but I think you are on to something. Appreciate you taking the time to answer, thank you! Jane
You are welcome. Do ask if you think of anything. The echo thing was never mentioned to me and it was a chance in a hundred that I worked out what the problem was.
Colin