Speech Therapy – Exercises For Stroke

A patient who survives stroke has to go through moderate to severe speech impairments known as Aphasia. It can be corrected or at least reduced by speech therapy exercises. These speech therapy exercises usually vary from person to person, depending upon many factors like age, severity, and needs etc. There are thousands of speech therapy exercises that can be performed to minimize speech impairments. Some of the most widely used and effective exercises are listed below:

TONGUE STRETCHES AND EXERCISES

Tongue stretches and exercises are done so that muscle fibre of the tongue become strong and warm up before generating speech. It also helps to re-educate the tongue muscles.

Tongue in and out

Take your tongue out as much as possible and hold the position for about 5 seconds and put it back in. Repeat this exercise 5 times every day. Make sure you stretch your tongue out as much as possible.

Side to side tongue movements

Take your tongue out to the right side of your mouth and then move towards left side. Again, keep in mind to stretch your tongue out to its full extent. At least 5 repetitions should be done.

Towards nose and chin

Take your tongue out and move it towards your nose and then towards your chin. Repeat it 5 times.

SPEECH PRACTICE

Take a consonant and vowels to form words, thus forming 5 set of words for example- Ha, He, Hi, Ho, Hu. Repeat it 5 times as well. You must also use other consonants to make a variation. Make it as loud as possible. Try to increase clarity of your voice and make it loud to strengthen your throat as well.
Another exercise includes practicing growling sounds as loud and as fierce as possible. It is fun to do, easy, and efficient.

TONGUE TIP TOUCHING EXERCISE

The patient is asked to touch different parts of the mouth using the tip of the tongue, a mirror is used so that the patient could see if he is making any mistake and could correct it.

Step 1: At the very beginning, the person is asked to touch his front teeth using tip of the tongue and view it in the mirror

Step 2: Second is to touch the back of the teeth using the tip of the tongue. Use the mirror to have a visual input of the movements.

Step 3: Third step is to touch the upper arch of the mouth using the tip of the tongue. It may be a bit uncomfortable but will get better with practice.

Step 4: Lastly, take the tip of the tongue as back as possible in your mouth. The back part of the mouth has soft palate which may cause tingling when touched with the tongue which is normal.

Make sure to repeat these speech therapy exercises as many times as is possible in a day.