How to Communicate with Brain Injury Patients When Words Are Hard

Learning how to communicate with brain injury patients is essential, because many people don’t realize how complex communication can be after brain trauma.

Multiple parts of the brain work together for humans to talk to one another. But when the brain is injured, one of the most common symptoms patients experience is a decrease in the ability to communicate.

Depending on the severity and location of the injury, patients may struggle with speech, understanding, memory, or emotional regulation. Patients, who have sustained a brain injury, find it frustrating that they communicate at the same level as they did before the injury.

This article will be a guide to walk readers on how to communicate with brain injury patients. It will show readers how to build trust, reduce stress, and support patients in their path to recovery.

Understanding Communication Challenges After a Brain Injury

The language issues patients may have after a brain injury is not the same for every person. There are a variety of ways a brain injury can impact language. It’s important to understand what are some of the different ways language skills can be affected.

Trouble with Asphasia

A common result of a brain injury is aphasia. Aphasia is a language impairment which affects a person’s ability to speak after a brain injury. In some serious cases, it also affects a person’s ability to read and write. Aphasia is caused by damage to one or more areas of the brain that are responsible for language.

There are three types of Aphasia:

• Expressive Aphasia: This occurs because an individual has suffered damage to the brain’s frontal lobe (located at the front of the brain). This causes a patient to have challenges with producing speech but can typically understand what is being said to them. These patients may also be able to read but may not have the ability to write.

In both cases, the patient has issues with ways to express what they’re thinking or how they feel.

• Receptive Aphasia: Injury to the temporal lobe of the brain (which is located behind the ears) is what causes Receptive Aphasia. Patients with Receptive Aphasia can speak, but they may use incorrect words in the conversation.

They also may not know that what they’re saying doesn’t make sense. They also have problems with written communication, because they have difficulties in comprehending what the words mean.

• Global Aphasia: This results from injury to both the frontal and temporal brain lobes. This may be considered the most extreme of all three Aphasia cases, because a patient with Global Aphasia has challenges when speaking and understanding others. Also, the person has issues with both reading and writing.

Brain injury home care personnel are trained and are knowledgeable in how to communicate with a person who has Aphasia.

They are patient with their clients, and they give them time to respond. They know how to let patients know when they have trouble understanding them.

Brain injury home care staff also use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) methods when working with patients. AAC is another way to communicate with patients instead of using speech. These methods can include gesturing “yes” or “no” answers, eye gaze boards, or electronic devices which can provide artificial voices.

They make sure they are speaking with the person. Not for the person. They are also skilled at making the conversations simple and directed toward the right age level.

Trouble with Cognitive Skills

Sometimes, a brain-injury patient may have language issues due to injuries which are responsible for cognitive (the ability to clearly think, learn, and remember) problems. Some of these issues can include:

• Taking longer times to process information – The patient may take a while before responding, because he or she may be trying to understand the conversation and what is being said.

Before the brain injury, the patient may have had no trouble responding. But after the brain injury, it may take longer reasoning through the conversation and knowing how to answer.

• Difficulty with focusing – Having issues with concentrating can also impact a person’s conversation. The patient may have difficulty staying on topic or issues with changing the conversation topic. Sometimes, the patient may also have issues with knowing if it’s his or her turn to speak during the conversation.
• Memory challenges – Some people may not know that issues with memory can also affect a person’s communication. For instance, the patient may keep repeating what he or she is saying during a discussion.

The patient may also forget the conversation topic. Other times, patients may mix up the instructions they received, because they can’t remember all of the steps from the previous conversation.

• Executive dysfunction – The brain’s executive functioning refers to the skills a person manages day-by-day. These could include issues with goal-setting, planning, sequencing, and adapting to new situations.

When having a conversation, a patient with a brain injury, who has executive functioning problems with poorly organized speech, excessive talking, difficulty understanding sarcasm or jokes, trouble starting conversations, difficulty taking another person’s perspective, and interrupting others.

Tips on How to Communicate with Brain Injury Patients Effectively

These language issues are common. While it can be exhausting (for the caretaker and the patient) to communicate, there are a number of methods and tools that can be used to ease the communication process.

For instance, caregivers may:

• Become educated: Learning about the type of brain injuries which can occur can help family members and caregivers understand what the patient is experiencing. This can help them have more empathy toward the patient. It can also help family members and caregivers become aware of the progression of certain symptoms.
• Reducing sentence complexity: When talking to patients, using simpler sentences, that are shorter and less complicated, makes it easier for the patient to understand. It also helps to focus on one idea at a time.
• Stick to one conversation topic at time: Avoid jumping between one conversation topic to another, because patients may have trouble following what is being said.
• Use different modes: Talking, as readers previously learned, is not the only way to communicate. Sometimes using facial expressions, visuals, photos, drawings, or even writing messages can facilitate the conversation.
• Provide a background to the conversation that is being discussed: Don’t immediately think that the patient has prior knowledge of the topic. Also, don’t let the patient make any inferences, because the patient can jump to the wrong conclusion.

Sometimes, it might be a good idea to talk about the background first, so the patient would become familiar with the topic.

• Respond to what a person says: There are times where the patients will find it frustrating talking to a person, because that person is ignoring what they’re saying. Make sure to acknowledge what the person is saying, so the patient feels like he or she is being heard.
• Eliminate Distraction: Create an environment where there aren’t many distractions. Keep noise low. Keep away any distracting images. Turn off the tv. Relatives and caregivers should also face patients while they’re talking.
• Stay Positive: It’s also crucial to stay positive. Being negative will put the patient in a bad mood too and may lower the patient’s mental health and well-being. Being positive helps keep the patient focused on the positive aspects of the situation too – such as being linked to all of the required sources and being surrounded by family and loved ones.

Learning how to communicate with brain injury patients takes time, patience, and understanding. Every individual’s experience with brain injury is unique, and so are the challenges they face when expressing themselves or processing information. By using simple language, reducing distractions, listening actively, and incorporating alternative communication tools, caregivers and loved ones can help patients feel seen, heard, and supported.