One Aphasia Action is a set of small, actionable activities you can do from home that will help you retain speech progress.
Even if there’s someone else around… talk to yourself. Seriously, YOU are the best company you have right now, and you’re certain to have an intelligent conversation because you’re brilliant.
All kidding aside, talking to yourself is important because it’s a form of silent rehearsal. Aphasia may cause trouble in getting out thoughts, so talking to yourself is practice for finding the right words.
Spend ten minutes talking to yourself today. (Don’t worry, we’re not going to ask you to also provide yourself with answers.) Spend the time describing something you are seeing or doing, talk about how you are feeling, or recount what you did yesterday.
Begin by silently thinking the words. Next, move your lips along with the words in your head. You can try speaking them, or if you’re having trouble getting out the words, you can sing your thoughts. Anything goes when you’re chatting with yourself.
You can find all of the One Aphasia Action activities on this list. This works best if you start on Day 1 and work at your own pace, even if you’re finding this project long after it has started. Try every activity, even if you only do it once. Keep doing the activities you like, repeating them the next day along with the new activity, and drop the ones that don’t work for you.