The Recovery of Aphasia and Epilepsy patients can be helped through the application of appropriate challenges with proper scaffolding

Aphasia and epilepsy patients recovering through the application of appropriate challenges with proper scaffolding
By Baylis
This past week I suggested that I would report on my experiences with my computer, cell phone and PDA. Unfortunately I am not much farther along than I was last week. My computer is not completely recovered. My PDA is not syncing and I can only use the cell phone for voice calls, and not any of the cute applications that the wireless companies keep trying to sell by advertising on television. My conquering of the computer, cell phone and PDA will have to wait for another time. Paraphrasing Chicago Cub baseball fans, there is always next week.

This past week I also reported on a comment that my physical therapist made about my progress. I had been seeing a physical therapist for balance issues that increased dramatically immediately after my seizures. Are they are a result of seizures? No one has been able to tell me definitively yes or no. Circumstantial evidence suggests they might be, since the Increase intensity of the issues happened in the same time frame. Whether they are or not, they are a constant reminder of the ugly specter of seizures hanging over my head.

The therapist’s statement to which I am referring was the one she made related to the fact that I needed to be pushing and stretching myself but doing it safely. When I suggested I was getting ready to use a step stool to change a light bulb, she quite forcefully told me that I was not ready to use a ladder. As I pondered her statements about pushing and stretching safely, several additional thoughts came to mind. One was the fact that in higher education a foundational principle of student development theory is that students should be challenged in an environment that provides proper and sufficient scaffolding. Over ten years ago, I designed and directed a critically acclaimed assessment project that involved fifty Christian colleges and universities. The project was a six-year longitudinal study looking at values development in students. One of the key results of the study was that students were more likely to reach the point of owning their values if they were forced to challenge or to examine their values in a safe environment, instead of being isolated in environments with no challenges, or being challenged with no support.

I also remembered that this principle is a foundational principle in athletics, where coaches hover over their athletes in practice to make sure they are exercising but doing the exercises correctly. As I reviewed the literature from the aphasia and epilepsy associations and organizations, they kept repeating this same idea to caregivers and patients. Patients need to push and stretch themselves to try to regain as much of their former capabilities as they can. These organizations also pointed out that one of the main responsibilities of caregivers was to make sure that the patient was pushing and stretching safely.
My physical therapist was suggesting that pushing myself to do more was important, but not enough. She also was suggesting that I should be stretching myself to do something different. If I just repeated what I could do well, I really would not be recovering my former capabilities. In athletics this principle takes the form of “no pain, no gain.”

This reminded me of what my speech therapist did with me. Prior to the removal of the brain tumor, I had been delivering the Sunday evening sermons in our church. My speech therapist kept pushing me to try to do that again. It took me five months to get up the courage and will to prepare a sermon. That first sermon I delivered in the safe environment of an audience of two, my wife and my therapist. After several suggestions for improvement and several weeks of practice, I felt ready to try an evening service. The congregation was quite gracious in their reception and encouragement. I did a second sermon the next week. After those two weeks I was mentally beat and needed a break. I could not keep up the pace of a new sermon each week. Thanksgiving was fast approaching and because my wife and I wanted to visit our family 10 hours away, I had an easy excuse for a two-week break. After that two-week break, it was the Advent season and the evening services were dedicated to Christmas preparation, so I was not scheduled again until after the New Year. However, I didn’t get a chance to deliver another sermon because on December 30, I had four seizures and spent a week in the hospital.

In preparation for the annual congregational meeting, the congregation finally came to realize that they were asking the senior pastor to do too much and he really did need help. Thus, they took the long needed step of adding an assistant pastor to the church staff. One of the primary duties of that assistant is Sunday evening services. Now after several months of healing, I am feeling the itch to start teaching again. I think I will volunteer to do some occasional adult Sunday school classes to get back into the swing. That will be pushing and stretching me but it will be in a safe environment. I know I am not ready to get back on the ladder of academic presentations. I need more practice first.

I want to go on record as thanking my wonderful therapists for pushing me to stretch myself to try to recover as much of the former me as possible. Without their intervention I don’t know where I would be in my recovery.