Apraxia is defined as a loss or impairment of the ability to execute complex coordinated movements without impairment of the muscles or senses.

The speech therapist said that he would never speak again after he met with severe brain injury and trauma. The area in question in the brain was called the Broca’s area which produces speech by actually stimulating the muscles that are involved in speech to contract. When damage occurs to this area, as it did with our son, the words that are said are said wrong.

The frustration level is high.

I began my research into apraxia to prove the speech therapist wrong and found my days filled with hours of repeating repetitive sounds. Was I wasting my time? And then I realized that with constant stimulation I was actually beginning to hear sounds that sounded more like the ones I was saying. I bought a recordable program and programmed into it common words that he would hear and then try to say. Sentence Shaper would become a part of our daily routine. Over and over and over. And suddenly there was improvement and no one could explain why. Even the speech therapist began organizing speech therapy activities.

The speech based program at the hospital proved fruitless. The main focus would be on his swallowing ability which I already knew was intact. We looked for different ways to help him.

Apraxia is not commonly a cognitive behavior but therapy may be one of the stepping stones involved with rehab. We were ready for anything that would come our way.

And then came Candace.

Candace was an expert on apraxia and one the best speech therapist I had ever met. Her strong desire to help and her intense methods quickly began showing their value. She began explaining to me every aspect of apraxia and knew which tools to implement. In two weeks we were already seeing amazing results.

The program that was initiated was motor based therapy. I would learn that breath support is the beginning pillar of speech based therapy and that our son was breathing for life not for speech. This would explain why he drew a breath between each word that he uttered. “Take a deep breath and hold it.” Now that seems easy for you and I but it takes motor planning which often is affected with brain injury.

We worked hard on every aspect that involved speech. We worked with bite sticks to strengthen his jaw, whistles to help with lip closure. Straws would give him the tactile cue for rounding his lips. We worked hard on separating his tongue from his jaw as they all worked as one in the beginning. He slowing began to control his breath and his speech became smoother.

Speech therapy is very important to initiate early in the brain injury rehab process. Don’t let anyone tell you differently. The brain adapts to and makes new connections early and the old saying “use it or lose it” most definitely applies.

There are many programs that are both inexpensive and and expensive that can help. Initially, “baby” words such as “ma ma”, “da da” help with sequencing and breath support. The results continue to be amazing.

Each room has it’s own story.

The brain mri is routine in determining what has happened inside the brain. I know of many patients who had a brain mri and now live in subacute on the fifth floor.

And then there are the ones who are dropped off and never seen again by their loved ones.

There are the rich who come here. I’ve seen $100,000.00 bed’s come and go.

And then there’s the young who say “It could never happen to me” and they too end up with a brain mri and/or brain scan.

Brain MRI are routinely done after brain injury and often shows damage to the cerebellum.

There is a main difference between where these patients remain and where others are sent after their brain mri..

The top ten 2008 brain injury rehab centers are:

Researchers believe that a victim’s type and quality of care determines the outcome of their condition.

Nerve cells of the cerebellum are arranged in an orderly manner. They function as inhibitors and organizers of the body commands initiated by the cerebral cortex, rapidly relaying messages in a manner somewhat like that of a computer.

Our son’s brain MRI showed signs of injury to this part of his brain and no one would explain to me what exactly that would mean to his future.

The cerebellum is essential to the control of movement of the human body in space. It acts as a reflex center for the coordination and precise maintenance of equilibrium. In other words it totally affects balance and it was quite obvious that his balance had been severely affected.

The many days of dragging him up and down the hallway at the hospital in an attempt to get him to walk made it very difficult with this injury.

Voluntary muscle tone as related to:

is similarly controlled by this vital part of the brain which is commonly known as the brain’s treasure. Thus all motor activity, from catching a football to playing the guitar, depends upon it.

It lies in the posterior of the cranium, underneath the cerebral hemispheres. It is located just above the brain stem and toward the back of the brain. It is relatively well protected from trauma resulting from crushing blows compared to the frontal, temporal lobes and brain stem. It is highly vulnerable to lack of oxygen.

This precious part of the brain is involved in the coordination of voluntary motor movement, balance and equilibrium and muscle tone.

Injury results in movements that are slow and uncoordinated. Individuals with cerebellar problems resemble person’s that may be intoxicated who tend to sway and stagger when walking.

Damage to the cerebellum can lead to:

Our son had the

Cerebrum is the largest part of the human brain, making up approximately 85 percent of the brain’s weight; its large surface area (cortex) and intricate development account for the superior intelligence of humans, compared with other animals.

The cerebrum is divided by a longitudinal fissure (indentation) into right and left, miror-image hemispheres. The corpus callosum is the slab of white nerve fibers that connects these two cerebral hemispheres and transfers important information from one to the other.

Two well-defined, fluid filled spaces call ventricles are found within each of the two hemisphere, by means of small openings called the foramen of Monro. The third ventricle leads into a fourth ventricle, locate in front of the medulla called the aqueduct of Sylvius. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), which circulates within these cerebral ventricles and around the spinal cord, serves to protect the internal portion of the brain from varying pressures and to transport chemical substances within the nervous system.
CSF is formed largely in the lateral ventricles from the choroid plexus, a closely knit bed of tiny blood vessels.

Each cerebral hemisphere consists of an outer layer of gray matter called the cerebral cortex. The cortex is composed of layers of unmyelinated cells, which in turn cover an inner mass of myelinated fibers called white matter. Myelinated fibers connect the cerebrum with other parts of the brain (protection fibers); the front of the brain to the back portion; different areas on the same side of the cerebrum (association fibers); and on side of the brain to the other side.

Each cerebral hemisphere is divided by fissures into five lobes. Four of the lobes are named after the overlying bones of the cranium:

To the Egyptians, the heart was the essence of life. Brain anatomy was unimportant. The brain was considered a minor, unimportant organ. They discarded it during the embalming process even as they preserved other organs for mummification. Skulls with evidence of healing have been found at many sites, suggesting that the subjects of operations survived.It’s funny how I never really thought seriously about the brain as a physical organ that regulates the body, like the heart, lungs, or kidneys. For most of my adult life, I’d never really considered the role it plays in walking, sitting, running, and jumping.

Clearly brain anatomy shows the brain has two sides:

Research has shown in brain anatomy that most people favor one hemisphere over the other, with the dominant hemisphere being more electrically active and the non-dominant hemisphere relatively more electrically silent, when a person is being tested or asked to solve problems or respond to information. The two cortical hemispheres are linked by a bundle of nerve fibers. In theory these two structures should unite the function of the two hemispheres. In practice they act more like a wall separating them.

From a neurological perspective, the cerebral basis for a well-functioning mind would be the effective, complementary, simultaneous integrated function of both cortical hemispheres, with neither hemisphere being permanently dominant. This in turn would require nerve fibers to optimize information flow between the two hemispheres. Research has shown Piracetam to facilitate such inter-cerebral information transfer-indeed, it’s part of the definition of a “nootropic drug.”

Brain anatomy studies the cerebellum

that controls our daily functions. Our son had stayed alive because there had been no damage to his brain stem, the section in the back of the head on top of the spinal cord that regulates breathing, heartbeat and other involuntary functions necessary for life. It is apparent that our son has most of his injury in the frontal lobes, the area of the brain that governs speech, memory, movement and personality. The frontal lobes are the parts of the brain, essentially, that makes us who we are. Depending on what parts of the brain has been affected, stroke victims experience a variety of neurological deficits.

Brain injury rehab

is crucial to the stroke or brain injury patient’s recovery. Physical therapists and speech therapists help patients “relearn” their lost functions and devise ways to cope with the loss of those they cannot regain.