Communicating with someone with aphasia!
When we are talking to someone with aphasia, we want to make sure that we support their levels of comprehension and make sure that we are fully understood.
There are a number of ways of doing this:
*Slow down your speech rate, use lots of pauses.
* If you are introducing a difficult topic, repeating or rephrasing, slow down even more.
* Within a sentence, produce words clearly and slowly.
* Break a longer sentence into chunks and use pauses between sections.
* Allow plenty of time to respond especially if you are expecting an answer.
* Use simple straightforward sentences and specify who, what, where and when.
* Introduce new topics, e.g. Did you hear about.....
* Repeat the key words in a sentence. The key words are the most important words in a sentence that will allow someone to comprehend.
* Use the persons name before starting a conversation.
* Do not use any patronizing language or tone.
Remember that intelligence is not affected with aphasia!
Do you find any of these tips useful? Please let us know what works and what doesn't.
A SCSS sponsored link: https://www.facebook.com/TheSpeechTherapyCentre
Rebecca Kipping
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