This is largely the province of the speech therapist but the physiotherapist may need to check some points for herself. The early interrogation will have give some indication of the patient’s problems and speech patterns will have been noted. The physiotherapist also needs to know whether the patient understands the spoken word even if he cannot reply. This can be assessed by asking the patient to make a signal if he understands what is being said.
The signal requested must be one of which the patient is capable. It must be appreciated that many patients know what they want to say but can only say one phrase or word which may come out every time they try to speak. Thus they may say ‘no’ if this is their only word when they mean ‘yes’ or ‘it doesn’t hurt’ or ‘hello’! if this is the case, yes/no signals need to be devised and questions worded so that yes or no is the only answer required.…
