Communication and cognition are often affected after a brain injury. Brain injuries include traumatic brain injury (TBI), concussion, and stroke. Katherine was honored to be a guest recently on the “Hope Survives | Brain Injury Podcast” with Cristabelle Braden to talk about communication and cognition after brain injury. Cristabelle is a brain injury survivor and advocate, and her podcast is a wonderful resource for education, support, and hope on a wide variety of topics related to brain injury.
Communication and cognitive skills affected by brain injury
Communication
- Verbal Expression
- Auditory Comprehension
- Nonverbal Communication
- Reading and Writing
- Speech & Voice
Cognition
- Attention
- Short Term Memory
- Executive Function
- Cognitive-Communication
Speech therapy can help after brain injury
A speech-language pathologist (SLP), often simply referred to as a “speech therapist”, assesses communication and cognitive skills. Try to find an SLP who specializes in brain injury, such as a Certified Brain Injury Specialist (CBIS). Speech and cognitive therapy will target your individual goals to improve your functional communication, ability to participate in daily activities, and quality of life.
Possible speech therapy goals include:
- Communication strategies to help when you have difficulty with word finding
- Identifying and managing distractions to improve attention
- Establishing and following a routine to increase ability to manage day-to-day tasks and be more intentional with your time
- Using encoding strategies to help with short-term memory
- Learning and practicing strategies to help with work, school, or social activities
Lotus Speech & Wellness, LLC offers SLP services to residents of Maine and Massachusetts. We are Certified Brain Injury Specialists who have worked in the medical field of speech-language pathology since 2011. Our mission is to help people improve communication, cognition, and mind-body wellness through our SLP and yoga offerings. Contact us today for more information or for a free 15-minute consultation.
Hope Survives | Brain Injury Podcast Episode #55: Communication and Cognition after Brain Injury (with Katherine Noyes)
From the Hope After Head Injury website:
“Communication is so important to our world, but it can be drastically affected for brain injury survivors. Difficulties include word finding, forming ideas, expressing oneself, understanding nonverbal cues, and more… so let’s work to understand this deeper and talk about some tips that can help!
This week on Hope Survives® | Brain Injury Podcast, we are diving into the connection between communication and cognition, and how this can be affected after brain injury. Katherine Noyes is a Speech Language Pathologist who is here to guide us in learning tools for improvement for executive functioning and communication. We also discuss tips for family/caregivers to help the survivor get their goal of communication across, as well as the non-verbal side of social cues, difficulty understanding sarcasm, and more.”