Aphasia Clinic

Stroke/Aphasia therapy Clinic

Samvaad institute offers  FREE speech and language therapy for patients with aphasia since 2011

Aphasia is a disorder that results from damage to parts of the brain that are responsible for language. Aphasia usually occurs suddenly, often following a stroke or head injury, but it may also develop slowly, as the result of a brain tumor or a progressive neurological disease. The disorder impairs the expression and understanding of language as well as reading and writing.

 Recovery from aphasia is a long process. The therapy is aimed at rewiring the intact areas of the brain and stimulating them to work together. Hence its recommended that the patient receives atleast 3 hours weekly and get practice at home too. 

To ensure that people with aphasia get the best chance to recover their  ability to communicate, it was the trustees who decided to offer free one hour therapy at the institute on a daily basis. 

 

“Teleconsultation for treating our clients with Neurogenic Communication Disorders is provided by Associate Teaching Professor Ramani Voleti, M.S., CCC-SLP/BC-ANCDS, and her students at Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA.”

 

 Services

  Speech language therapy for-

  1. Aphasia (Loss of language post stroke or head injury )
  2. Dysarthria (Unclear speech , post stroke or head injury )
  3. Clients with Parkinson’s disease
  4.  Apraxia of speech 

The latest methods that are proved to be effective are –

  • VNest (Verb network strengthening)
  • SFA (Semantic feature analysis)
  • PCA (Phonological component analysis)
  • CAAST
  • Script training
  • MIT (Melodic intonation therapy)

With the interest to provide world-class therapy to our clients, Samvaad has a clinical collaboration with Syracuse University USA, since 2015. This collaboration entails two online meetings every month, in which the clients therapy plans are discussed . Samvaad and Syracuse won the meritorious award  for their unique use of technology for clinical collaboration at the American Speech and Hearing Association conference in 2017

FACULTY

RADHIKA POOVAYYA , MSc, BCBA, Head of  the department.

Bhagya Nair, MASLP, MSc (Dysphagia) is a senior speech therapist of this department. She has completed her masters in audiology and speech language pathology and masters in dysphagia from Amrita university.

Konika Kakar, MASLP is a speech and language therapist with masters in speech language pathology and audiology. She has done short term courses on aphasia treatment strategies and is involved in caregiver support. 

Amulya, MSc, Speech is a speech and language therapist with masters in speech language pathology. 

Gurudas, MASLP is a speech and language therapist with masters in speech language pathology and audiology. He is a junior assistant therapist for dysphagia. 

FAQs about stroke

How does speech therapy work for Aphasia?

Aphasia therapy works on the premises that after a stroke language is not lost, rather the patient is unable to retrieve language due to brain damage. Speech therapy uses procedures that aim to rewire the brain pathways to retrieve language. This helps one to improve a person’s ability to communicate by restoring language abilities, and training them to adapt to other ways of communication if required. Therapy helps to build networks in brain and speed up the recovery process.

Is speech therapy effective after 1 year of a stroke?

Yes it is ! Although there is plethora of research stating that early Intervention is key, there is enough evidence to show that aphasia therapy can began at any given time post stroke. Samvaad has given results for patients who began therapy 3-4 years post stroke. Research suggests that  the use of evidence based approaches  and the number of hours of therapy are crucial for the success of speech language therapy and not the starting time of intervention. 

Can a person with stroke regain his language through Speech therapy?

Evidence shows that speech therapy can regain language through rewiring of the brain networks. However for significant results, therapy needs to be intensive and the patient has to be motivated and cooperative. We recommend 1-2 hours of therapy daily for one year. In an ideal situation, a person can regain about  50 to 60 % of his communication ability .

What are the roles of caregivers/family in Aphasia therapy?

Family involvement is often a crucial component of aphasia treatment because it enables family members to learn the best ways to communicate with their loved ones and also for the prognosis in favor of the client. Persons with Aphasia go through a lot of emotions and good caregiver support enhances the quality of treatment by giving favorable environment to the client to be able to express himself more effectively.