When a patient suffers a traumatic brain injury, it can lead to a loss of movement in their muscles, including those of their speech centers (their mouths and lips). As a result, the patient is no longer able to articulate themselves as they were able to before the injury; this disorder is known as expressive language disorder. Fortunately, expressive language disorder therapy can help patients with this disorder regain some to all of their ability to competently and coherently articulate themselves both with the spoken word and the written word. Learn more about what this disorder is and how expressive language disorder therapy can help patients dealing with this disorder below.
What is Expressive Language Disorder?
This disorder is a specific development disorder of speech and language. It does not appear to have one specific cause; instead it can occur during development if a person suffers from malnutrition, as well as occur when a person suffers damage to their cerebrum due to a brain injury or to a disease or disorder.
The patient who suffers from this disorder has difficulty communicating with others. They will often have below-average vocabulary skills for their age or using the incorrect tense when speaking to others. They may have difficulty forming complex sentences and remembering specific words. This disorder does not affect their ability to understand others; just in articulating and expressing themselves to others.
How Does Expressive Language Disorder Therapy Help a Patient?
This therapy involves evaluating the patient to see who what type and how much difficulty the patient has at expressing themselves to others. A speech and language therapist will work out a therapy plan in an effort to help the patient improve their vocabulary and articulation skills. This can include the use of images, figures, books, and toys. It can also involve loved ones speaking short words slowly so that the patient hears them, then attempts to articulate the same sentence back in an effort to improve their speech and articulation skills.
Moody Neuro has the resources, programs, and services to provide effective expressive language disorder therapy to patients who have suffered a traumatic injury or developed a degenerative neurological disorder. Learn more about our programs and services at Moodyneuro.org.
