Wednesday night

Matt started speech therapy this week and I think it's going to be really good. We spent almost two hours talking with the new therapist and she got a very clear picture of where Matt is and what is still difficult for him. He'll have sessions with her twice a week and she'll be sending him home with lots of work to do on his own. One of her goals is for more independence for Matt, so he needs to write his name, address, phone and the date every day.

His hardest work so far is a sheet of full sentences to read out loud. Apparently it's very common for people with aphasia to look at or hear a sentence and only be able to repeat the main words. For instance, she said "He picked up the paper from the coffee table." and Matt repeated "picked up paper coffee table". He has a list of 10 sentences to read through like 'He paid his rent.' and so far he's been able to read through 5 with help and it is so hard! But that's what the work is for and it is going to help him get better. Unfortunately, it also makes him feel stupid and get really frustrated with himself, so we have to find the right balance of challenging but completable tasks.

His PT worked with his walking gait this week and we've all noticed a big difference. Before, Matt would lean over a little and throw his straight leg out to the side and around in front of him. Now, he's concentrating very hard on picking up his leg and bringing it out in front by bending his knee. It's slowed him down a bit, but it looks really natural. We've been out walking almost every night and he's now off the cement and out to the garlic field and back! Hopefully we can make it to the woods before all the spring wildflowers are gone.