Communication Strategies in PPA

These are practice activities based on things that matter to you. They can help you keep words longer and say them more easily.

• Script training – Practice saying short, everyday sentences like “I’ll have a coffee, please.” or stories you like to tell.
• Speech entrainment – Watch and speak at the same time as a video of someone else.
• Lexical cascade – A step-by-step way to find and say a word (like thinking about what it means, or writing or saying the first letter).
• CART – Write a word while looking at it, then write it again from memory. This helps with spelling and remembering words.

Learn more about speech-language therapies for PPA 

Your care partner is someone close to you who helps with daily life. Close others are people you see or talk with regularly. A speech-language therapist will help them learn how to:

• Give extra time for talking
• Use yes/no questions or give choices
• Support communication without taking over
• Notice when you need help and respond kindly

They may learn in sessions with you or in a group with other care partners.

This means changing the space around you to make talking easier.

• Turn off the TV or music when talking
• Sit face-to-face during conversation
• Add written notes or labels to common items
• Use pictures or lists to support daily routines

Strategies you can use to help with reading and writing:

• Keep a list of helpful words to use when writing or texting
• Use cue cards to help remember how to spell important words
• Write or type what you want to say when speech is hard
  • Turning on text prediction in your phone can help you remember words and how to spell them.  See more  ways your phone can help you
• Label objects around the house to support word finding, and remember how to spell words

Here are some ways people use these strategies every day:

• Practice a short script to use at a favorite café
• Use a photo app to share a memory with family
• Point to a menu picture to order a meal
• Text a saved message like “Please wait—I need a moment.”
• Use a notebook to tell a story or share news
• Show an “awareness card” in a new place to explain you have PPA