Case Study: Speech and Language Recovery in Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

Abstract

We report a unique communication recovery pattern, occurring two-year post-injury in a 40-year-old patient with severe Traumatic Brain Injury, who remained comatose for 3 months. Initially, the patient presented with severe deficits in expressive and receptive language skills, with minimal neologistic verbal output and poor communicative intent. Speech interventions included Language-Activity-Resource-Kit, Sona-Speech and Oro-motor Exercises. Speech therapy was divided into two phases: in Phase-I, interventions used for 3 months followed by Phase-II, in which the speech therapy modalities were customized and added to previous regime, which led to sudden and unanticipated recovery by 25^th month post-injury. Over 6 months of speech therapy, patient showed remarkable and unanticipated recovery pattern in communication. Communication skills presentation and improvement over this extended time in Traumatic Brain Injury patients is highly unpredictable but at the same time the potential of human brain and neuroplasticity cannot be undermined. More research is needed for evidence-based practice in speech therapy for severe Traumatic Brain Injury.