Treatment for Communication Problems after Head Injury

About the Treatment Program

The Auburn University Speech and Hearing Clinic offers individual treatment sessions for persons with communication difficulties secondary to a traumatic brain injury. Due to the diffuse nature of most head injuries, a number of communication problems often require attention in treatment. These may include language difficulties (particularly in word finding and in maintaining the topic of conversation), and speech clarity problems (their words may seem slurred and slow). Also, head injured persons often also have cognitive language deficits which may include in the treatment objectives such as: sequencing information in retelling a story length message, remembering and following multi-step or lengthy/complex information, finding and describing alternative solutions to everyday problems. We do our best to meet the individual needs of each client in our scheduling. The duration of individual sessions typically ranges from 30 to 90 minutes. The frequency of sessions usually ranges from 1 to 5 times per week. There are a number of factors that will help us determine the client’s schedule: how long they can focus their attention, how easily they fatigue, how severe their head injury was, their goals for therapy and the availability of transportation.

In the more severe cases, our treatment programs focus on those aspects of the person’s communication that will improve their functional ability to communicate their wants and needs to their caregivers. In more moderate cases, we work toward improving communicative independence and in the milder cases we address the communicative skills needed to return to the workforce. We are often coordinating our treatment efforts with the staff at the Alabama Head Injury Foundation and the Alabama Department of Vocational Rehabilitation.

In general the individual treatment goals will address restoration of communicative function where ever possible, compensation strategies for those problems that persist and counseling for the client and his/her family along the way.

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Involvement of Family and Friends

We often require a family member to accompany the client to each treatment session. This is especially true if the client requires assistance in activities of daily living and/or if the client’s medical condition may require prompt attention (i.e., they have a history of seizures).

We prefer to include the family in the treatment planning process and in the identification of communicative needs within the client’s home environment. We encourage the family members and close friends to observe the sessions and at times to participate in treatment task. This allows us to observe their communicative exchanges with the client and suggest ways that might facilitate the process. We also often design a home program of activities to be completed outside the clinical setting and the family is usually a main part of that program. Progress update conferences as counseling sessions are times when we may specifically request that the family attend the appointment.

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Progress

The client’s progress is typically monitored each week and formal re-evaluation of skills are done at least each semester. This permits us to reassess and redesign the treatment plans to meet the changing needs of the client.