Stroke and Brain Injury

Brain Injury Support (Cognitive-Communication): 

 After an acquired brain injury (ABI), you may have cognitive (thinking) and communication problems that significantly change your ability to function in all areas of living, including at home, school/work and in the community.  These problems vary depending on how widespread the damage is to your brain and the location of the injury.   

When living with ABI you may have difficulty expressing yourself through speaking and/or writing. You may also have challenges understanding both written and spoken information. Spelling, writing and reading may be a struggle as well. Social communication can be affected, resulting in difficulty: 

• Taking turns in conversation 
• Staying on topic in conversation 
• Using an appropriate tone of voice 
• Interpreting the subtleties of conversation (e.g., the difference between sarcasm and a serious statement) 
• Responding to facial expressions and body language 
• Keeping up with others in a fast-paced conversation 

Cognitively, you may experience the following: 

• Difficulty concentrating around distractions (e.g., carrying on a conversation in a noisy restaurant or working on a few tasks at once). 
• Slower processing or “taking in” of new information. Longer information may have to be “chunked,” or broken down into smaller information units. You may need to repeat/rehearse information to ensure you have taken in the aspects that are most important. Your communication partners may have to slow down their speaking rate.
• Problems with recent memory and learning new information. Long-term memory for events and things that occurred before the injury, however, is often unaffected (e.g., You will likely remember names of friends and family). 
• Executive functioning challenges. You may have trouble beginning tasks and setting goals to complete them. Planning and organizing a task is challenging, and it can be difficult to figure out if you are doing something the best way. You may seem disorganized and need the assistance of families and friends. You also may have difficulty solving problems and may react impulsively (without thinking first) to situations. 

At Beyond Words, our role is to assess and then treat these cognitive-communication challenges with the broad goal of supporting you in returning to your pre-injury cognitive-communication activities of daily living in the home, school/work and community environments, with the greatest independence possible. We do this by working with you, your loved ones and any other supportive personnel such as other members of a rehabilitation team, the school, the workplace, etc. 

Treatment is most effective and efficient when:

• It is designed with you. 
• It is designed around both your strengths and needs, often co-determined during a comprehensive assessment, 
• It involves tasks that are meaningful and engaging for you. 
• It includes evidence-based techniques. 

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