Stroke Speech Therapy Worksheets

What Is A Stroke Speech Therapy Worksheet?

Stroke, a neurological deficit caused by a blockage to the brain’s blood supply, is one of the leading causes of serious long-term disability, with many potential complications following the initial incident. These complications can include paralysis, emotional issues, and what we will be focussing on in this article- aphasia.

Aphasia is a language disorder that disrupts an individual’s ability to communicate through written or spoken language. There are many types of aphasia depending on where in the brain the initial stroke took place, but one thing is common across all types of aphasia; speech and language therapy (SLT) will play a huge role in the individual’s recovery.

Therapy worksheets refer to resources that are used during therapeutic treatment with a patient, while Speech therapy worksheets are excellent supplementary tools for children, teenagers, and adults with speech difficulties. As such, we have developed a  specifically for Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs) to help their clients with post-stroke aphasia. This worksheet uses principles of Verb Network Strengthening Treatment (VNeST), a type of therapy developed by Dr. Lisa A. Edmonds, designed specifically to help individuals with aphasia find words and reduce their communicative deficit, thus improving their quality of life.

How To Use This Worksheet For Stroke Speech Therapy

If you’re thinking that Verb Network Strengthening sounds a little complicated, don’t worry, it is actually quite simple to start incorporating this activity into your client’s speech therapy. Just follow these simple steps below.

Before you start on the worksheet with your client, download the PDF Stroke Speech Therapy Worksheet template using the link on this page. You can then proceed to print it out for your client, or it can be completed digitally.

Choose a Verb

There are lots of options to choose from, but a good idea is to pick a verb that is relevant to your client’s daily life. The only specification here is that it should be a transitive verb, that is, a verb that can be used in the middle of a sentence. Examples of verbs that would not work are “arrive”, “run”, or “laugh”, as these cannot be used before an object word. Examples of transitive verbs that will work are “drive”, “eat”, or “like” as these can go in the middle of a sentence.

Write the Verb in the Main Box

Once you have chosen a verb for this worksheet, write it in the main box in the middle of the page.

Activity One: Make Three “Who and What” sentences using the verb

The first activity to work on with your client is making three sentences using the verb. To make these sentences, you and your client should find three people that might do the chosen activity, and three objects that this activity could be done to. For example, if you chose the verb “like”, a three-word triad might be “Puppy” “like” “treats”. It is not crucial to conjugate the verb at this stage, as the goal of this activity is to find words rather than create sentences with perfect grammar.

Activity Two: Make Three “When”, “Where”, and “Why” Sentences continuing on from each of the above “Who and What” sentences

The next stage of the worksheet is to move on to more complex sentences. For each three-word triad created in the first section, choose another three words to expand upon the triad, adding “When”, Where”, and “Why” information. From the example before, the more complex sentence might be: “Puppy” “like” “treats” “in his bowl” “every day” “to crunch”, again the grammar is not as important as the word-finding aspect of this activity!

Activity Three: Revise each of the Sentences

Depending on your client’s stage of recovery, you can proceed to go over each of the more complicated sentences, asking the Who, What, When, Where, and Why questions about each.

Remember, living with aphasia can be mentally exhausting and a gradual recovery process, so you should use your professional judgment on what parts of these activities your client is ready to attempt. Any of the activities can be modified to include drawings, flashcards, or other visual aids depending on your client’s needs.

Who Can Use this Printable Stroke Speech Therapy Worksheet (PDF)?

This worksheet is designed to be completed by a Speech Language Therapist (SLT) and their client with post-stroke aphasia, however, any practitioner who works with clients struggling with aphasia or word-finding may find this worksheet useful to implement with their clients. Some of these professionals may include:

• Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs)
• Speech-language Pathologist
• Occupational Therapists
• Community health workers

Why Is This Form Useful For Therapists

Customizable to your client’s needs

Simply complete the parts of the template that meet your client’s stage of recovery, and leave out the activities that they are not quite ready for. Alternatively, you can increase the amount of assistance or cues provided to help your clients complete the activities in this worksheet.

Large Layout

For clients re-learning language skills such as finding words, reading, and writing, having a big layout can be a great help. This also allows for completing with a whiteboard marker if you choose to laminate this worksheet.

Benefits of Stroke Speech Therapy Worksheet PDF

Utilizing this Stroke Speech Therapy Worksheet in your practice can have lots of benefits for you, and your clients. Here are just a few:

Pre-formatted

Save time formatting worksheets for your client. With our Stroke Speech Therapy Worksheet, all the formatting has been done for you including text boxes, and space for your client’s name and the date of your session.

Numbered layout

Organize your activity using our handy numbered layout, allowing you to easily expand upon sentences created in the first activity with your client. Simply fill in the numbered “When, Where, Why” section corresponding to the “Who and What” sentence you created in the first part of the activity.

Re-usable

This template can be used over and over again, simply choose a different verb and you’ll have an entirely new activity! You can also print out and laminate this template so you can simply wipe it clean after you’ve finished the activity.

Keep it Digital

Alternatively, this template can be kept entirely digital and filled out electronically. Keeping the template digital aids in shareability, however, ensure your client has the capability to fill out the PDF version as sometimes filling it in by hand may be easier for clients re-learning language skills such as writing and reading.