Aphasia Awareness Month

This June marks Aphasia Awareness Month, a time dedicated to the 360,000 people living with aphasia in the UK.

Over the past year, we’ve had the privilege of supporting 225 local people with aphasia through our one-to-one sessions or at one of our eight Aphasia Cafe group settings across Yorkshire. During this time, we’ve been exploring the impact of having a language disorder, discussing self-help strategies and ways for others to help make conversation easier.

After many open and honest conversations, we’ve put together a list of top tips and advice from our community.

I have aphasia. What can I do to make conversation easier?

Set up for success

• Take a deep breath and relax
• Be patient with yourself
• Choose a quiet space or reduce background noise
• Make eye contact
• Tune into people’s facial expressions
• Keep it simple and slow
• Think ahead
• Make a script with conversation starters
• Ask for help – this includes asking people to stop, slow down or repeat themselves

Use these strategies

• Use the ‘I have aphasia’ card to make others aware of your communication difficulties
• Practice saying the first sound or letter, and reading out loud
• Break up your sentences into smaller chunks
• Use actions e.g. pointing, or demonstrating
• Use pictures or objects
• Write things down or draw a picture
• Be honest if you don’t understand
• Regularly use therapy apps such as Cuespeak or Tactus
• Read things twice in short bursts
• Take a break

How can I support someone with aphasia?

Set up for success

• Learn about aphasia and how this impacts your loved one
• Listen, be patient and give them time
• Choose a quiet or intimate space and reduce background noise
• Remove distractions
• Give the person your undivided attention
• Don’t put the person with aphasia under pressure

Help the person to understand

• Try to speak face to face, making eye contact
• Use simple words and sentences
• Speak slowly, loudly and clearly
• If you’re in a group, speak one at a time
• Try not to ask unexpected questions
• Recap or rephrase what you have said
• Clearly state when you’re changing topic

Help the person to communicate their wants and needs

• Don’t interrupt, make presumptions or try to finish their sentence
• Be honest if you don’t understand
• Recap or rephrase what they have said to make sure you understand
• Involve your loved one in the conversation – speaking to them, and not about them

At Aphasia Support, our charity’s mission is to improve the wellbeing of people with aphasia and their carers by providing tailored speech and language therapy and long term support. If you, or someone you know, has aphasia – please call us 01924 562443 on or send us an email so we can share more about the support that’s available in your area.