Lauren's motivation and language improved by working on her personal interests


Colleen’s daughter, Lauren, acquired aphasia from a Traumatic Brain Injury. She was concerned Lauren wouldn’t be able to handle going from 2 hours therapy a week to 25 hours a week, but Lauren’s motivation and stamina greatly improved. Lauren also wanted to work harder and even asked for more homework!



Since Lauren’s accident and since we got past the point of her life not being in danger. It’s my day, it just consumes me, how do I fix Lauren?

I think I’ve googled “aphasia” four thousand times, and The Aphasia Center popped up and there’s not too many places like the Aphasia Center. What I really liked about the Aphasia Center was that its one-on-one. Here at the Aphasia Center they had some younger therapists, and not only were they younger, they were just full of passion. I have met a lot of great therapists on our road to recovery. We have a lot of really good therapists. But the great therapists are hard to find. I think the difference between the good therapists and the great therapists is your passion. When you go to work every day and you’re excited, you’re going to work harder for that patient.
Here at the Aphasia Center, every single person who has worked with Lauren, in my opinion, has passion. And to me that’s huge.

Since we’ve been here, and I was really concerned, because she was doing two hours of speech a week and here we got five hours a day for five days a
week.
So that was my biggest concern, I just had visions of her out in the parking lot, and actually the first week we did have some issues where she tried to leave the door. But the staff here was firm but loving, and let her know “You’re not going anywhere.” So, that was a big big help. And i think that really set the precedent early.

Coming here, I think the biggest change not only with her language improving is her motivation. I mean she, she’s an early riser so she gets up before me and she’s up and dressed and putting her makeup on and ready to go. I have not had one
day of pulling her out of the car which is huge. And not only just her motivation but the different things that they do with her and the different exercises they do. They have really worked hard to get to know Lauren and what she likes which is
just huge. It’s really helped her work hard.

Another change that I’ve noticed with Lauren, and here at the Aphasia Center they give homework every night, too. So it’s really good for me to see what she’s doing and to see the improvement. But what I’ve noticed with homework and with talking with her therapist she’s doing the same here, is some of the homework lessons that she has are so incredibly tough for her. “You know what Lauren, I know this is tough, some of the things will be easier tomorrow. We’re done, we’ll work again tomorrow on it. “
And she’s like, “Oh no, no, no, let’s keep going”. And her stamina is just so much better now.

And her therapists have shared with me the same things. There are times where she’s just like okay, they’ll tell her to take a break and she’ll say “No no no, let’s keep going.” And I know one particular time she asked when they were giving her
her homework. She was like “no no no, give me some more”. So, she’s for the first time really taking the initiative into her
recovery.
And it’s nice for me to see that she gets it, and she realizes that this is what she needs in order to keep getting better. Her motivation is just 110% better than it was back at home.