Anyone who sees Dale doesn’t know right away that words are hard for him to find. On the sofa is a man’s playful tree, and Tommy’s dog at his feet. Having a conversation is complicated for Dale. In his head he knows exactly how he wants to say it, but he can’t always get the right words out of his mouth. “It’s as if the letter drawer has been torn down,” explains his wife Betty.
His phone provides a solution for finding and pointing things out and for daily planning, working with icons to make it clear. But his wife Betty regularly helps him with the supplements. “Dell has the illusion that I can see inside his head, but of course I can’t,” she laughs. “Often a few words or gestures are enough for me. But I don’t always understand it either.”
To better understand each other, they followed PACT (Partners Aphasic Speech Training). An exercise in which you, as a partner, learn from a person with aphasia the best way to start a conversation. “It was a great value and I really recommend it to everyone,” Betty says. “Anyway, it’s good for people with aphasia to talk calmly, take time for the conversation. If you can’t figure it out, stop the topic for a while.”
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