National Body Language Day falls on the first Friday of the month. It’s a day created by body language expert Blanca Cobb as a means to raise awareness of the messages you can send using certain gestures, facial expressions, or stances. Gestures are a good way to communicate with your dad when speech is limited and speech therapy at home providers can help with different ways of communication.

Body language is defined as the use of gestures for communication. These gestures include physical behaviors, mannerisms, and expressions. Have you tasted a very sour candy and grimaced? That’s body language.

Types of Gestures and Body Language

There are two main forms of gestures: co-speech illustrators and emblems. Co-speech gestures help with communicating how speech is interpreted. Co-speech has four types:

Beat Gestures: Helps with the pacing of speech, a useful tool when speech is difficult.
Deictic: A gesture that connects what you’re saying to a specific place, such as pointing at the sofa or a specific person.
Iconic: Gestures that help represent the visuals that go with speech, such as saying the dog is this high and holding your hand at your knee.
Metaphoric: Gestures that solidify a thought, such as zipping the lips after telling someone to be quiet.

When your dad cannot speak, emblems are beneficial as they represent speech. If you’re okay and give a thumbs up, that’s an emblem. If you ask your dad if he feels okay and he gives a thumbs down, that emblem makes it clear he’s not feeling well.

Facial expressions and physical actions also convey a lot. Your dad is smiling, so you know he’s happy, but his frown indicates something is wrong. If your dad holds his head, you’d realize he has a headache. If he keeps massaging his knee, he’s likely suffering from knee pain.

The Benefits of Speech Therapy at Home

When an older adult cannot communicate through speech, body language becomes an important tool in communication. Your dad needs to be able to communicate when he feels sick, is hungry, or experiences pain. If he feels discomfort, he needs to be able to communicate where that pain is. This is something a speech therapist can help your family navigate.

It may be useful to learn simple sign language for communication. Speech therapists can help with words and phrases like “eat,” “drink,” “toilet,” or “sleep.” You want to be able to communicate as quickly and easily as possible to help him avoid frustration or irritation that you’re not understanding what he’s trying to say.

Speech therapy at home assists your dad as he relearns communication skills after a stroke, head injury, or condition that makes it hard for him to speak. Whether he has throat cancer that impacts his vocal cords or has Alzheimer’s that’s robbing him of the ability to speak, speech therapy helps him communicate with you and you with him.

If you are considering hiring Speech Therapy at Home Services in Mt. Vernon OH, call the caring staff at Central Star Home Health at (419) 610-2161.  

Providing services for families in Mansfield, Lexington, Bellville, Crestline, Galion, Shelby, Ashland, Ontario, Bucyrus, Mt. Vernon, Marion, Willard, and the surrounding areas.

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Stephen Sternbach

CEO at Central Star Home Health Services

With over 35 years of experience, Stephen Sternbach has been the Chairman of the Board of Directors, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Star Multi Care Services since 1987. After the sale of the New York and New Jersey operations of Star Multi Care Services, Sternbach brought the company private where he remains President and CEO of this 40-million dollar company. With Sternbach at the helm, Star Multi Care Services employs more than 650 employees, in six offices throughout Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York.

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