Top 5 Speech Therapy Exercises for Patients Who Have Suffered a Stroke

Have you or a loved one recently suffered from a stroke? Are you having difficulty speaking with the people you care about most?

Having a hard time communicating can be frustrating for everyone involved, but when you’re the one struggling to say even the simplest things, it can feel infuriating.

That’s where having the right tools (or, in this case, speech therapy exercises) comes in.

In this post, we’ll give you the rundown on speech therapy for stroke patients and review 5 of the most popular speech exercises to help you get your groove back.

Let’s get to it, shall we?

1. Sticking Your Tongue Out

For this exercise, all you need to do is stick your tongue out, hold it for as little as 2 seconds, pull it back, and then repeat.

When you’re working to overcome a post-stroke condition like aphasia, it can sometimes feel like you’re never going to be able to do even the smallest things like sticking your tongue out again. But really, all you need to do is practice.

2. Moving Your Tongue from Side-To-Side

Before you move on to more advanced tongue strengthening exercises, you’ll want to ensure that you can do some basic movements with your tongue.

Here, you will open your mouth and touch the right side of your mouth with your tongue. Hold it for a few seconds, reach the left side of your mouth, and then repeat the exercise.

3. Moving Your Tongue Up and Down

This is an extension of the in-and-out tongue exercise.

Once you’ve mastered the in-and-out, you can take things to the next level by reaching your tongue up to your nose, holding, and then reaching down to your chin.

4. Practice Smiling

We’ve covered a few tongue exercises already, but what about if you want to improve the control of your lips, too?

An easy exercise to do just that is to practice smiling. It goes like this:

Smile. Relax. Smile. Relax. Repeat the exercise until your cheeks hurt.

Practicing in front of a mirror is ideal because the mirror will give you a visual representation of how you’re doing – and this can help motivate you even further.

5. Make a Kissy Face

You might not think that making a kissy face would be considered one of the top speech therapy exercises, but it is.

When you’re all smiled out, you can practice making kissy faces.

Pucker your lips for a few seconds and then relax. It’s as simple as that. Repeat until you reach ten reps.

Try These Speech Therapy Exercises Today

These five speech therapy exercises are a great way to get a head start on your recovery.

And if you’re looking for further rehabilitation for you or your loved one, Rainbow Rehab and Healthcare provides many different services to give you the quality care you deserve.

Are you ready to join our community? Don’t hesitate to arrange a private tour of our facility today.

It’s easy to set up, and you can do it right on our website. We look forward to meeting you!