Interview on Aphasia in Adults - Essay Example

INTERVIEW ON APHASIA IN ADULTS The Speech Language Pathologist’s Interview on Aphasia in Adults In my community, I meet a speech language pathologist who had worked for several years with adults having aphasia disorder. The SLP is an expert who provides language and speech therapies and has the ability to detect levels of understanding and expression and the challenges of communication among the patients with aphasia. The SLP happens to be a close friend of mine and I got motivated to ask him about Sarah, a patient who is 29 years old that was well known to him because he had attended to her recently having had a similar disorder. The SLP begins by explaining to me in brief what the condition aphasia means. He says that aphasia is a disorder that results from damage of parts of the brain that are coordinating language. He further adds that it affects both the young children and adults but emphasizes that it is very common among the older adults. The SLP tells me that aphasia is caused by the damage of the dominant part of the brain that controls most aspects of language. He says that the part of brain that is damaged by aphasia is the left hemisphere. After the brief explanation from the SLP, I went further to interview him about Sarah whom he met earlier having aphasia disorder. According to the SLP, Sarah, 29 years old had aphasia disorder. Before doing anything to her, he welcomed her to sit on a chair at his therapy room. The room was private hence there was no interruption from outside. Then, the SLP explains that he tried to create a rapport with Sarah asking her three general questions about her home, the current activities and her wellbeing. First, the speech-language pathologists established an ongoing relationship with Sarah and her family to provide security and reassurance through good rapport and trust. He adds that Sarah understood and communicated in English very well and that was the language used during their interaction. Just before the SLP could begin his therapy on Sarah, he assured her of the confidentiality of her therapy session and requested her to feel free to respond to his questions regarding her health. The SLP told Sarah that he uses codes in his therapy work to keep the secrets of her work. He also used codes to represent the words expressed by Sarah. In their interaction, the SLP used memos to ensure that the emerging theories supported Sarah’s views about her condition. At the time of coding, the SLP made the memos regarding the relationship between codes. Coding involved the identification of codes using phrases, sentences, and words from their interaction transcriptions with Sarah. According to him, Sarah was not able to articulate the sounds. The coordination and planning of movements to make a speech was realized to be difficult in her. The other speech problems observed in Sarah included a stuttering fluency and hoarseness of the voice. As we proceeded with the interview, the SLP told me that the language of Sarah was immensely affected by aphasia. He said that Sarah had difficulties in using, understanding and communicating the way a normal healthy person does. Aphasia damaged the part of brain that is responsible for the language in human beings. The answer I was given by the SLP did not satisfy me. Hence, I proceeded to ask him of the causes of damage to the part of brain he was referring to. His response was that the damage could be as a result of head injury, brain tumor, neurosurgery, and brain infection, and head injury, stroke or drug misuse. Similarly, the SLP explained that aphasia reduces access to employment and social integration. It also reduces the ability to gain knowledge for instance; the ability to learn from others is difficult because of the challenge of communication and sharing of ideas and thoughts. In addition, work, education, decision making and autonomy are the characteristic features that were observed in Sarah. On the behavioral characters of Sarah, the SLP explained to me that the aphasia condition had impacted negatively on her abilities. It affected her ability to speak, write, read, and understand. However, her intellect remained intact. He also argues that aphasia made Sarah not to be able to listen properly. This further leads to social isolation, breakdown in close relationships, and frustration. Furthermore, the aphasia affected Sarah’s functional outcomes. It caused emotional distress, depression and also interfered with Sarah’s social relationships. It made Sarah remain in grief. She lost her former self and remained disconnected from those around her. The SLP’s explanation to this was that it was caused by the damage of the brain that predisposed Sarah to depression, excessive emotions, neglects and, anxiety. On several occasions, Sarah lost herself worth. Her relationship with family members was strained due to breakdown in communication, leading to tension and frustrations. He said that Sarah had been affected with the aphasia, hence; she lost independence, lost the desire to get involved in her daily chore, and lost her self control. The condition had even excluded Sarah from full participation in conversations, making important decisions and obtaining new information. Moreover, Sarah was not able to effectively participate in the societal activities. The SLP’s explanation to the condition was that aphasia made Sarah not to be able to return to her daily activities. He argued that aphasia affected Sarah negatively and that her social roles, for instance, the household management could not be effectively performed the way she did before the aphasia condition. When I asked the SLP about the strengths, the challenges and abilities to handle the aphasia condition, he was bold to tell me that he is a professional who was an expert in dealing with the condition of Sarah. He added that Sarah needed to be in contact with him as a language and speech therapist for a long term care package. This helped Sarah so much in recovering from her aphasia disorder. In conclusion, he added that the aphasia condition in individual is supposed to be effectively treated. If the condition is not treated, for instance Sarah’s case, then there could be possible psychological problems and family breakdown which could ultimately lead to higher costs to her health. With the aphasia condition, it is not only the patient, for instance Sarah, who would be affected. The condition ended affecting both Sarah and her family and the people around her including friends and the society that had to adapt to enhance communication. References Blom, J. M. (2012). Aphasia and Communication in Everyday Life. Experiences of Persons with Aphasia, Significant Others, and Speech Language Pathologists. Acta Universitalis Upsaliensis. Page, C. & Howell D., (2015). Current Clinical Practice of Speech Language Pathologist Who Treat Individuals with Aphasia. A Grounded Theory Study. Journal of Interactional Research in Communication Disorders. Roth, F. P., & Worthington, C. K. (2011). Treatment resource manual for speech-language pathology. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar. Read More