“After a stroke, my husband is unable to speak clearly. What should I do?”

Hello. Has your husband had speech therapy since his stroke? I am not sure as to what you mean by "struggling to speak", Is his speech slurred, is it hard for him to get sound out, is he having trouble putting words together to make sentences? These are all different impairments and will be treated differently. To pin point the issue and receive the best help, contact his primary care physician and request a referral for speech therapy to get a speech/language evaluation.

Consult a speech therapist.

Yes, difficulty speaking can be common after a stroke. I would definitely recommend speech therapy as soon as possible.

Yes! There is so much to be done. Aphasia is the loss of language that is often seen after a stroke. Dysarthria is something that can happen after a stroke as well where articulation is negatively impacted because of weakness in the tongue. Apraxia is something that can happen after a stroke where words are not pronounced correctly but not because of a weak tongue. Without an evaluation, I cannot give you exactly what his direct problems are, however, you can look into the National Aphasia Association for resources and local support groups who do activities where he can practice speaking. Definitely see a speech language pathologist for an evaluation. There are exercises specific to each condition. Tactus Therapy has an application you can download to your tablet or phone where he could use visual demonstrations of people saying words, phrases, sentences, etc. and speak alongside with them. You can also use the Lumosity software, where he can perform exercises to find words he wants to say. You can buy Scattegory cards from Target and have him think of different category items. You can also find a list online of common opposites and see if he can come up with the opposites of different words. You can find empty comic strips and have him try and narrate them or explain them to practice producing words. There are many things he can do and I gave you a few ideas to start and application idea to download but I also recommend in addition to those, for him to see a speech language pathologist in his local area either private practice or telepractice.

I'm sorry to hear of your husband's stroke. Recovery from a stroke depends on many factors: what type of stroke, how severe, age of your husband, what rehabilitation did he complete after the stroke, and what rehabilitation is he currently receiving, etc. I would recommend continued speech-language therapy.

Unfortunately some strokes affect the language area and can affect either understanding or expressing communications with others. Some speech therapies might help, but no definite remedy exists.

Yes. Speech therapy is recommended. At home, it would be great to get a box of objects/items and work on each day having him say it and write the name of the objects. It is great to do this repeatively each day to increase his expressive language skills.

Find a speech therapist that treats a lot of stroke patients. The longer you wait, the less chance of recovery he has. Much will depend on where the stroke was in his brain. Persistent effort pays off. Needs a lot of help with his homework doing this as well. Good luck.