Practice books for adults who are finding words again.
Aphasia affects about a third of stroke survivors. These are workbooks you can use at home, on your own, with family, or alongside a speech and language therapist.
Book One out now: Word Retrieval Workbook for Adults with Aphasia. Large print. 122 pages. Eight units, from naming everyday objects to writing a text message.
Buy Book One on AmazonPaperback. Also available on Amazon in the UK and other regions.
- Set in Atkinson Hyperlegible, the typeface designed by the Braille Institute for low vision.
- One task per page, with room to write.
- No timers and no scores.
- Answers can be spoken, written, pointed to, gestured, drawn, or written down by someone else.
Page 95, reproduced from the book:
Level 3
When the Word Won’t Come
This is not a test. It is a tool you can use again and again.
Sometimes a word hides. You do not have to wait for it. Talk around it:
THE THREE MOVES
- Say what it is for.
- Say what it is like.
- Say where it lives.
For example, you want the word “colander”. It hides. So you say: “The bowl with holes — for draining pasta — it lives in the kitchen cupboard.”
Now you try. Describe each one without saying its name. If someone is with you, can they guess?
An umbrella:
Scissors:
95
What is in Book One
Eight units. Each one runs from Level 1 to Level 3, then ends with a review and a task to carry into the day. Answers are at the back, and many of them say that more than one answer is right.
- 1Everyday Naming
Finding the names of things you see and use every day.
- 2Categories
Grouping words by what they belong with, and finding a word from its group.
- 3Word Features
What it is for, where you find it, what it is like. Building the word from its parts.
- 4Sounds and Syllables
First sounds, rhymes and syllable counts as a way back to a word.
- 5Pairs and Opposites
Words that come in twos, and words that pull the other way.
- 6Finishing Sentences
Letting the sentence carry you to the word at the end of it.
- 7Action Words
Verbs, who does them, and what they are done to.
- 8Words at Work
A shopping list, a greeting card, a phone message, a text reply, making tea, and what to say when the word will not come.
How the practice works
Three levels, no grades
Level 1 gives strong cues, word banks and simple choices. Level 2 removes some of that support. Level 3 is uncued, with sentence work and real-life tasks. The levels are neutral. Start where you feel ready.
Answer your way
Speak it, write it, point to it, spell part of it, gesture it, draw it, or ask someone to write your answer for you. The communication counts, not the method.
A small question at the end of every page
Easy, Just right, or Hard. The answer is for the person practising, and it shows which pages are worth returning to. It is information, not a score.
Ten to twenty minutes, a few days a week
Stop before you are exhausted. Repeat useful pages. Skip a hard one and come back another day. Progress often comes from returning to the same words more than once.
The Cue Ladder
This page sits at the front of the book, for family and carers. It is the part people tell us they use most, so it is here in full. When someone is searching for a word, try these steps in order.
- Wait. Longer than feels comfortable.
- Ask: “What is it for?”
- Ask: “Where do you find it?”
- Give the first sound only.
- Offer two choices.
- Say the word, and ask them to repeat it, point, gesture, or use it in a phrase.
Praise the attempt, not the accuracy. Help before it becomes frustrating.
Where the exercises come from
The activities are adapted from approaches used in speech and language therapy. The book names its sources, and it says plainly what it is not: it is not an assessment, and it is not a substitute for individual care.
- Semantic Feature AnalysisBoyle & Coelho, 1995
- Phonological Components AnalysisLeonard, Rochon & Laird, 2008
- Cueing hierarchiesLinebaugh & Lehner, 1977
- Verb Network Strengthening TreatmentEdmonds, Nadeau & Kiran, 2009
Evidence supports these approaches for the items that are trained. Carry-over into everyday speech varies, which is why every unit ends with a real-life task rather than another exercise.
Who it is for
Someone practising after a stroke
Large print, one task per page, and no page that expects you to write if writing is hard. You can start anywhere, repeat anything, and stop when you need to.
A partner, son, daughter or friend
The Cue Ladder tells you what to do when a word will not come, and each unit opens with a short note for whoever is helping.
Speech and language therapists
There is a note for clinicians at the front naming the approaches each unit draws on. The free-listing pages can be timed if you want them to be. The printed pages never mention timing.
The series
Each book takes a different thing a stroke can disrupt, and rebuilds it from simple practice towards ordinary use.
- Book One — Word Retrieval Workbook for Adults with Aphasia Out now Naming, word finding, and everyday communication.
- Book Two — Numbers, Money & Time After Stroke In preparation Prices, coins, clocks, dates and appointments. Not a maths book: the numbers people meet in an ordinary day.
- Book Three — Reading After Stroke Planned Large-print reading practice: signs, labels, instructions, messages and forms.
Start with Book One
Eight units of naming and word-finding practice, a Cue Ladder for the person helping, a personal list of the words you want back, and a certificate at the end for eight units of difficult work.