One of the biggest challenges that speech pathologists like me may face is treating aphasia. Aphasia is a language disorder that occurs from injury of the brain. Strokes, dementia, traumatic brain injury are examples of these injuries that can result in aphasia. Intelligence is not affected. Difficulty understanding and saying words, reading and writing are signs of aphasia after brain injury.
Speech pathologists are educated to understand what aphasia is. However many cases of aphasia are complex, and this leads to many people not recovering speech despite getting therapy. Speech therapists have shared with me their desire to get their patients speaking, as this can be difficult in severe cases. As a supervisor for many speech pathologists new to field, I have enjoyed helping speech therapists work through the various clinical presentations and factors of aphasia with a simple technique.
It feels so good to help others recover their oral communication ability!