Stroke and Speech Assistance Apps: APP2Speak Helps Stroke Patient Find Joy
The following true story is an example of both of these situations. A patient needlessly suffered for a long time because neither he nor his loved ones and caregivers knew about today’s amazing communication tools for patients who cannot talk. But, in the end, his frustration turned to joy due to APP2Speak.
My Patient’s Story
I performed a speech evaluation recently on a 79-year-old man who could not effectively communicate. He was clearly frustrated with his speech impairment. Most of his conversational speech was unintelligible.
By talking with the man’s wife, I learned that his stroke had occurred two years previously and that he had regained most of his speech and language afterward but had seen a decline in his ability to communicate within the past six months.
The man understands what others are saying to him, but he can’t find the words to hold a conversation.
The result? He doesn’t communicate with family or friends. Instead, he relies on his wife to try and interpret what he wants to say.
I also learned that during the course of his rehabilitation, he had never been shown any speech assistance apps or used a picture word board.
I was heartbroken!
As a Speech Pathologist, my goal is to help my patients, whether through the use of the APP2Speak AAC app or some other AAC speech impairment app that can effectively help them communicate.
I showed him several different AAC speech apps, and we worked to see which app he could benefit from most. One of the apps he wanted to try was not customizable with photos, which was an issue for him, since he wanted to take photos of items that were in his room and in his environment instead of having to point to them.
I showed him how to use and customize APP2Speak to include pictures of the items he wanted to communicate about. He found the app easy to use, and he and his wife set about uploading personal pictures and customizing pages to fit his communication needs.
His eyes lit up!
This was the first time in quite a while that he was truly able to communicate. I appreciated the joy the man experienced as he started on his way to being happier, less frustrated, and more independent.
These are the moments that make my job so rewarding.
Picture to Speech Apps: A Godsend for People Who Can’t Talk
There are many reasons a person might lose their speech. Whether this loss of the ability to communicate happens due to a stroke, a head injury, or some other reason, the introduction of a photo to speech app into the person’s life can be a game changer—not only for the person whose speech is impaired, but also for everyone else in their life.
That’s one of the reasons I created the APP2Speak AAC app. It’s such a simple tool, but the impact on people’s lives can be massive.
If you haven’t checked out the features that APP2Speak offers, head over to our How It Works page.
And if you’ve been thinking about trying out a photo to speech AAC app, but weren’t sure you needed the full-featured version, you can now try out our new APP2Speak Lite version. This is a is a “mini version” of our APP2Speak photo based AAC app.
Whichever version you go with, it can truly be a life-changer, as the story above demonstrates.