One interesting thing that researchers have recently discovered is that speaking more than one language can help with stroke recovery. The study looked at patients who were bilingual, and then followed their recovery after their stroke compared to stroke victims that only spoke one language. The researchers concluded that bilingual patients performed better when it came to organization, attention, and information retrieval after their stroke.
If you have an elderly loved one, you might wonder how this information applies to them, especially if they only speak one language and have no desire to start learning a second one now. This is a good question; languages are hard to learn and take a lifetime to master. However, the important thing to take away from all of this is that those people that do speak two or more languages have a different way of thinking than those patients that speak only one. They do not necessarily think in just one way all of the time, and this makes relearning concepts after a stroke a lot easier because they already have some of the basic mental tools needed to relearn things and process information in different ways.
The bottom line is that keeping the brain active is a vital part of senior care and mental health. It doesn’t matter if it’s with stroke recovery, slowing down the spread of dementia, or just keeping the brain stimulated and keeping people’s moods elevated. It doesn’t necessarily need to be a second or a third language that’s learned to keep the mind in top shape. Previous research has already indicated that being bilingual can help delay the onset of Alzheimer’s, and this research adds to that, especially when you consider the fact that a stroke in itself can cause dementia as well.
In-home care is often a great solution to help those dealing with stroke recovery. It helps them with the little things around the house, provides companionship and supervision, and it gives the person in need of care a friendly face to help them exercise their brains. Sometimes a caregiver doesn’t really need to do much other than be a friend and provide conversation. Just keep in mind that if the person recovering from a stroke has severe needs, in-home care might not be enough to keep them as healthy as possible. This will need to be determined on a case by case basis.
If you have an elderly loved one, a stroke is something that you might need to deal with in the future. Hopefully this will not happen, but it is something that could happen, even if they seem like they are in good health. Regardless, helping them to keep their brain sharp, either by conversing with them regularly, doing puzzles, learning new languages, or something else that they might enjoy doing, you are doing them a great service. Things like this promote mental health, help delay the onset of many types of dementia, and provide a source of entertainment. It also helps to keep them occupied and prevent loneliness, if you or an in-home caregiver are taking part in this with them.
Leave a Reply