Joe had moderately severe anomia, which greatly affected his ability to have a conversation with his spouse, Gary. Gary learned effective strategies to help Joe communicate better and how to step back and give Joe more independence. Gary was surprised at Joe's writing abilities and Joe's increased confidence in speaking more loudly and more often. "He’s definitely more independent. And what he will do now is that it’s helped draw him out of his shell. He’s making more of an effort to actually talk and whereas before I felt like a lot of times I was talking for him. And that’s happened in, I could see it the first week. And now after the fourth week, he’s really, he’s bouncing back. And it’s snowballing. I’ve noticed, too, that he’s always had a very soft voice and his voice now is, the volume, is stronger. He was talking in a whisper when we came and now it’s, like today when he was giving the speech the volume was really right on. So that’s been the biggest improvement, his stepping up so to speak and our being able to talk more without having all the cues and my saying this.
I can see now things that I can do now to help him with the strategies they’ve taught him--turns out he’s very skilled with his writing. And now I know, if he stumbles over a word, don’t give him the word, write it out. Little things like that, all the strategies we’ve learned. "
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