Author: Judith Russo

I received a birthday wish from The Aphasia Hope Foundation. What a delightful surprise. The question was asked “If I could have my wish, what would it be?” My answer was, “surely a little more time with my aphasic husband. A little more time to help.

Speech therapy was used from the onset of the stroke. But soon the health benefit ran out and we were on our own. I made a picture book for Hank and put his face on a drawing of a physique “hunk!” That way he could point to what part of his body hurt, or felt numb or was uncomfortable. I put pictures of his children and grandchildren, and we talked of them often, saying their name over and over. The grocery store, movie theatre, church, anything/place that would be somewhere he would want to go that he could point to. I was very firm with our grown children and told them to call Hank EVERY Night and talk to him. One son needed to hear his dad say “I love you” and so he would teach him over the phone over and over to say those precious words. They became part of his newly re-learned vocabulary. Hank insisted on driving. I got the program from Bungalow Software.Com about recognizing the traffic signals. He worked very diligently with that one. I also enrolled Hank in a Speech Therapy Clinic associated with Communication disorders at the University of Rhode Island. Budding graduate student speech therapists would work with stroke/brain disorders and there Hank was put into a small group of men who had the same disability as he. I would be happy to discuss this with anyone who would like to email me. Singing, for some reason, is not the same as talking. I gave Hank some songs from the 1950″s on cassette tapes which he loved, and I encouraged him to sing along with them. He did quite well. These are only a few of the many things we did. They Worked!!!