Rehabilitation
At Home Rehabilitation Exercises
Last Updated:
28- Language Exercises
For more extensive work in this area, exercises are available in the Workbook for Aphasia from The Speech Bin @ 1-800-4-SPEECH.
LEVEL 1 - Have an array of 10 objects to choose from. Show the student one object at a time. Ask the student to name the object in question. If there is difficulty, give progressive clues or cues by:
- Letting the student hold and manipulate the object.
- Giving the student a descriptive sentence to complete. For example, if the object in question is a cup, say: “You drink from a _____”.
- Giving the student the written word describing the object: CUP.
- Giving the student an auditory cue of the word where you say the first sounds of the name of the object, such as: “Cu…”.
LEVEL 2 - Use published pictures of objects or pictures of objects cut out of magazines, advertisements, etc. If there is success in naming the object, ask the student to tell you what you do with the object. If difficulty is evident at this level, give progressive clues/cues as described above. Ask the student to name an attribute or quality of the object, such as “RED”, when looking at a red truck. If there is success describing an object's function, ask the student to use the word in a sentence. Also refer to Appendix A for help understanding language.
LEVEL 3 - Have the student provide you with words for the following: Synonyms (words with the same or similar meaning, such as “big” and “large”), Antonyms (words with opposite meanings, such as “sick” and “well”), or Homonyms (words that sound the same, but have different meanings, such as CAN {a container for food or drink} and {the ability to do something} or SHOULDER {the side of a highway} and {a body part}. (You can create your own materials for these tasks, as described below, or obtain materials from several sources including the Workbook for Aphasia® or Workbook for Language Skills® or Brubaker on Disk®, all available from Parrot Software ® at 1-800-727-7681 or www.parrotsoftware.com. If you use the Parrot Software® Brubaker on Disk program, choose “Make Workbook” for any of the areas listed such as Word Recall or Reasoning or Sentence Formulation by clicking on the box at the top of each category. Then choose any of the specific types of exercises under that section.)
Create worksheets for the student to use by making up 10 different examples for each of the tasks that are suggested here:
a. Circle the correct spelling: electric elektik ellektric
b. Circle the correct spelling: ruler pensel papre
c. Make up sentences but leave one and then two blanks or missing words in each sentence and ask the student to fill in the blank with an appropriate word or words.
My ______ went to town and bought groceries. OR I saw my _______ yesterday and ________ him to go with me.
d. Ask the student to give synonyms or words that mean the same as the ones provided. Sick ______ Baby ______ Argue ______
e. Ask the student to give opposite words to the ones provided. Old _____ Sit _____ War _____
Remember that these are just suggestions. You can make up more (10 for each type of task). You can get ideas for words or sentences from newspapers or magazines that may be around the house.
LEVEL 4 - Make a list of 10 object words or nouns, preferably common household objects. Do not tell the student which word you are thinking about. By giving 3 to 4 clues as to what the object is, have the student guess the object in mind. It may help the student to see the list of words or to hear them read aloud prior to the activity to enhance their ability to recall the words in description.
Example: Clue #1: A Body Part. Clue #2: A Covering. Clue #3: Found on the Chin. The word to be guessed: BEARD. For working with the Brubaker on Disk® CD-ROM:
LEVEL 3 - For each Target area, choose Easier difficulty level and Yes/No or Multiple Choice response type with 2 choices of words.
Help the student work through 1 to 5 exercises off of one sheet at a time. Read the exercise out loud to the student and prompt for answers if there is no response. Complete one exercise as an example and then proceed with the student providing answers. Encourage the student to read each exercise aloud.
LEVEL 4 - Select Easier difficulty level and add the ability to use any response type by clicking “Select All” under Response Type. Also require the person to work through 10 questions before stopping. To increase the difficulty, Choose Letters, Words, and Phrases with 2 or 3 choices in Response Type. Choose from Target Areas: Word Recognition, Word Finding and Sentence Formulation.
LEVEL 5 - Increase difficulty by choosing Average difficulty level and using a variety of response types by clicking “Select All” as above. LEVEL 6 -- Further increase difficulty and complexity by choosing Harder difficulty level and have the student work through a combination of different sheets, perhaps as many as 20 to 30 questions during a 15-minute session.
Taken from Tasks for Home-Based Cognitive Stimulation Program, the Traumatic Brain Injury Model System at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Dept. of P M & R, Birmingham, AL. © 1998-2003 University of Alabama at Birmingham