How the ‘Speak Your Mind’ guide was born
There can be a number of reasons for someone having limited speech or no speech at all, for example medical conditions such as stroke or dementia, or the result of an accident, or because of Special Needs.
Whatever the reason, it is often difficult to know just what to say and how to communicate with someone whose verbal skills are impaired. For family and friends the awkward silence when visiting a loved one in hospital or nursing home, or even in the family home, can be so embarrassing and unconstructive that it is the most common reason for cutting the visit short — it is simply too hard.
“Like many others who have the misfortune to suffer debilitating strokes, my father lost the function
of one side of his body and lost his speech completely. When he was in his nursing home, I devised
a visual pack comprising a series of cards with text and graphics, to help us as a family to communicate
with him. The pack proved to be invaluable as a means of stimulating conversation, particularly when
there were awkward or embarrassing silences. Other residents and nursing staff also said they found
the cards very useful.
When Dad died, we kept his personalised pack in the family as a reminder that we really had done everything we could to keep things normal for him, to make him still feel included in our everyday activities and to keep him as close to us as possible in the latter part of his life.
That pack has since been developed into the ‘Speak Your Mind’ visual aid, designed for people of all ages who cannot talk or whose speech is difficult to understand, and for their families, carers, professionals and others, all of whom will benefit from two-way conversation.
My sincere hope is that this guide will prove to be as helpful and effective for others as the original was for me and my family.”
Margaret Moran
SYM Guides Ltd