Aphasia & Memory Loss

I swear, the more I learn about aphasia, the less I understand. I don't think even the experts know exactly what is going on inside an aphasic's mind. All through Bob's professional speech therapy, the therapists' were in agreement on one thing, which was the use of flashcards to help relearn the names of objects. But flashcards have not proven to be very effective with Bob. No matter how many times he is shown a flashcard picture of, say, an elephant, he cannot seem to remember from one day to the next that that is indeed an elephant...

Same goes with our morning routine, after bedbath and I get him dressed for the day, I always quiz him on the names of "socks" "pants" and "shirt" as we put these on. I've been doing this for nearly six months and Bob sometimes remembers these names and other times, he will insist that "socks" are "pancakes" or that "pants" are indeed "sandals" and the "shirt" still leaves him just confused.

Which makes me wonder just how much of this is aphasia and how much of it is due to short-term memory problems. Bob also suffers from long-term memory loss. It seems, in fact, that whole chunks of his memories have disappeared since the stroke. He cannot remember, for example, that he has sisters. This became apparent to me when someone asked Bob if he had any "brothers or sisters". And Bob shook his head "no" and even after I explained that he did indeed have two sisters (living) and one deceased, he looked at me totally confused, then insisted I was wrong. He also seems to have no recollection that he was previously married and that marriage produced two children.... I do wonder if any of these long term memories can come back. Be restored, so to speak.

Though, I suppose, the loss of certain memories could be considered a blessing of sorts.

Anyway, for the moment, I've ditched the flashcards and we have begun working on short-term memory issues.

Bob's Memory Game

A special thanks to Jenn who sent Bob this Memory Game from Hasbro. The game consists of cardboard picture cards which are turned upside down and the idea is to remember where certain pictures are located and to collect pairs.

The first time Bob attempted this game, he was absolutely terrible at it. He's still not very good, but getting better the more we play it.

And it helps that it is a competitive game, because simply he hates to lose!