The eighty year old uncle of a friend has (temporarily) lost his speech following surgery for throat cancer.

Currently he is using a wipe clean board and pen to communicate which is frustrating him.

Are there any aids that might help ease this? I don’t think teenage texting skills are a possibility

It maybe depends how temporary ‘temporary’ is. If he’s not already a quick typer (I can probably type a lot faster than I can write) then any alternative to writing is going to take time to learn and get good at.

A bunch of visual aids for common answers and requests – yes / no / tea-milk-1-sugar / might be handy though.

You can get a little book called ‘Point it’ which is really a multi-lingual phrase book – pages of related images so that you can point to pictures of things you want rather than having to shout at foreigners.

Basic sign language? My daughters both learnt a version – ‘baby signing’ as kids – and I reckon you could gain some basics in a few days, plus it’s a good way of keeping the brain active. Does mean you need someone to sign to though….

When I was ventilated in ICCU they had sheets with pictures on that could be used to point things out, i.e. Drink, eat, more opiates etc.

Magnetic wipe board (like a giant doodler)? ie Tomy Megasketcher

Laminated visual symbol sheets? (+1 Point-it book – but sometimes it’s easier to have a few printed sheets of common word/phrase/request symbols, saves flicking through a book)

Some (maybe helpful) PDFs here

And throw some humour in there as well* ‘Thanks’ ‘No, **** off’, ‘maybe later’ ‘mind your business’ etc

Simple Makaton or BSL taster course?

It’s been a few decades but used to work daily with non-verbal clients (both CP and profound autism), Googling just now I wish we’d had apps for that

Give it a try?

Well, if there’s an iPad handy, iOS does text to speech, so all he has to do is tap out the text and it’ll speak it out loud.

Get in touch with your local hospital and contact the speech therapy department. They should have specific equipment for this and/or they may have iPads with specific (and rather expensive) speech aid apps.

Not sure what you need to do to qualify to loan the equipment, you may need to be referred to them for your GP.

My grandfather had his voice box removed with a permanent tracheotomy.

Initially, he had this electronic gizmo that he placed against his throat and made him sound like a dalek. It did let him ‘speak’ and be quite easily understood.

That ‘Point It’ book looks great! 🙂

Thanks for these ideas folks, I’ll pass them on.

MAKATON is a less complicated version of sign language. It can be pretty straight forward to get basic communication. You won’t be having deep and meaningful philosophical conversations with it but it may reduce some stress at not being able to explain simple things like pain, thirst, hunger, happy etcetera. It is also useful in busy or noisy shops as you can communicate without needing to be heard.

We’ve been dealing with this for months now, through mental health issues my daughter is non verbal. We’ve managed with using phones and reading texts etc, with a bunch of notepad and pens spread around as backup. When meeting people from outside the family, we’ve found that a notepad and pen works much better than electronics, people don’t seem able or willing to engage fully with the sight of someone with their head down writing on their phone, and assume they are either being rude or distracted, and people tend not to wait for a typed answer and ask a second question before the first can be answered which can raise frustration and stress levels. A good old notebook and pen allows others to instantly understand the rhythm of conversation required and things go smoother, also, when at CAMHS, the pages can simply be torn out and left behind and the people there need to take fewer notes.

Proloquo

http://www.assistiveware.com/product/proloquo2go

I work in SEN and it’s amazing software. One of the children I work with is entirely non-verbal with other complex issues (mental and physical) and watching him communicate through this is a real dusty-room experience.

The video in the link I posted focuses on SEN issues but it’s also quite commonly used for those like your father who have a new physical issue. NT stroke victims can become amazingly proficient in a few days.

Feel free to email me if there’s anything you think I can help you with.

makecoldplayhistory gmail.com