Brain injury
After a brain injury, the words can get stuck. The person is still there.
A traumatic brain injury is one of the causes of aphasia, and it can also affect the planning of speech, the speech muscles or the voice while thinking and reading stay clear. ExpressAgain lets a person who can think, read and choose find the right words on a screen and says them out loud, in the patient's own cloned voice when one is set, and keeps the family and the rehab team on one plan.
What can get in the way of speech
Different reasons the words get stuck, one way to be heard.
A brain injury can affect speech in more than one way, often more than one at once. None of them means the person is confused or less intelligent. Whichever it is, tapping a phrase and letting the app speak it does not depend on finding the word or on the mouth cooperating.
- Aphasia
- Understanding and using language
- Apraxia of speech
- Planning the mouth movements needed to speak
- Dysarthria
- The muscle strength and coordination needed for clear speech
- Cognitive communication disorder
- Attention, memory, organization, reasoning and conversation
- Voice impairment
- Producing a voice that can be heard or kept up
Inside ExpressAgain after a brain injury
Recognize and select, instead of generating from scratch.
- Tap a phrase and the app says it
- The core library sorts hundreds of ready phrases by real situations: Basic Needs, Saying No, Feelings, Family & Visitors, Faith & Comfort, Medical Questions, Legal & Money, Moving My Body, I'll Tell You Why and more. One tap speaks it out loud.
- Letters, Type and Build a message
- Letters is an on-screen alphabet board that speaks what is spelled and can share it as a note. Type lets a family member type anything and have it spoken. Build a message starts from I am, What about and Let's and opens long lists of real things to say.
- The patient's own words
- A group named after the patient holds the names, places and shows no library could know. The family and the speech therapist add to it, and it comes first on Communicate and in the Phrase Library.
- Calm by design
- A 3 at a time switch shows fewer choices on harder days. There is no timer and no rush. Text and button sizes turn up in Settings, and a reduced-motion setting keeps the screen still.
- A voice that sounds like the patient
- The browser's built-in voice speaks at once. With a signed-in account, a short recording in Settings becomes the patient's own cloned voice; until it is ready, a clear built-in voice speaks.
- Learn, Practice Out Loud and Medical Words
- Short read-aloud lessons in Learn explain aphasia, which often follows a stroke or a brain injury. Practice Out Loud is hear it, record a try, hear it back, never graded; a therapist's assigned exercises appear there. Medical Words explains hospital words in plain language.
Beyond communication
The care around the patient, through rehab and coming home.
- The care plan
- The Home Care Team Plan on one page, the day plan as a story and a checklist, Health Tracking for the readings, Prescriptions and every dose, Appointments with who is driving, the Schedule, and Coming Home for the discharge questions and the equipment checklist. Every feature, for every party
- The Care Team
- Speech, physical and occupational therapists, nurses and doctors join with a per-discipline code, read the same day on the care-team dashboard, log what they did, and assign practice between sessions. For clinicians
- The circle
- Family and friends get accounts with a role, share photos and short videos in the family feed, send notes and voice messages to the Love Bucket, and the patient answers with a tap. Comeback Stories show people who walked a hard road. For families
- Rehab and coming home
- In a rehab or skilled nursing building the Room Schedule shows who is in the room and when, and the visit link lets guests ask for a time. At home, the Home Team of professionals works from the same plan. For rehab and skilled nursing
Who it's for
The person, the family and the rehab team.
- For the person after a brain injury
- The words are still in there. Find them in a clear, organized library and let the app say them, with no typing required, no writing and no guessing games.
- For the family
- Add the words only the family knows, choose the voice, invite the circle, and keep the plan, the medications, the appointments and the readings in one place through rehab and coming home.
- For the rehab team
- Speech, physical and occupational therapists join with a code, assign practice, leave notes, and read what changed since the last visit on the care-team dashboard.
Common questions
Answered from the app as it is.
- Is there a brain injury mode?
- No. The guided setup offers Aphasia and Stroke, the core library ExpressAgain began with, plus ICU and Ventilated, ALS and Parkinson's, Dementia and Senior Care, Head, Neck and Throat, and Hospice and Palliative. A person who cannot speak after a brain injury uses the core library; every library stays one tap away in every mode.
- What if the person can speak a little, or understands more than they can say?
- The app never requires speech. Tap to speak, Letters and Build a message work alongside whatever speech is there, and Practice Out Loud lets the person hear a phrase, record a try and hear it back, with no grading ever.
- Can the speech therapist use it?
- Yes. A speech-language pathologist joins the Care Team with a code, adds words to the patient's library from the care-team dashboard, assigns practice, and, when the family turns it on, sees what the patient looked for and could not find.
- Is it medical advice or a treatment?
- No. ExpressAgain is a communication and care-coordination tool, not a medical device or treatment. The phrases are the patient's own words and questions; diagnosis, treatment and rehab decisions belong with the medical team.
Searching for an AAC app? What ExpressAgain does as augmentative and alternative communication.
ExpressAgain is a communication and care-coordination tool, not a medical device or treatment, and nothing here is medical advice. For diagnosis, treatment and rehab decisions after a brain injury, always talk with the medical team.