What’s causing this?

If this was a recent stroke, she could likely be helped by speech therapy.

Coupled with occupational and physical therapy, the outcome will be better.

This takes time, effort and dedication, but is completely worth it.

My dad suffered a severe stroke and had resulting aphasia. He improved significantly from this work.

We replicated the therapy at home to reinforce his progress and the results were miraculous.

DoveLoveSky: The answer to your query may depend on the size of the hemmoraghic stroke.

Sounds like the parts of her brain that deal with conversation have been damaged. She may not be able to ask questions or formulate any other answers. If so, it won't be able to be fixed. Find other ways to engage her in interactions and relationship: share photos and with captions of all the people and happenings in the photos, share events that happen in your life and members of the family, ask her about her life (those older memories may not be affected)...

Some of this depends of course on what’s causing it. My mom suffered aphasia after a stroke and during her improvement was at this stage for a while but each patient, each stroke is different. Is she getting intensive speech therapy? Are her doctors aware that this is not her baseline pre-stroke? I can tell you that in our case while they of course saw the damage of the stroke on scans doctors and speech therapists relied a great deal on our feedback about what was and wasn’t “normal” for her. Not knowing the patient pre episode makes subjective assessment difficult especially when patient's are of a certain age since many of the elderly patient's they see have a baseline of confusion. I can also tell you that my mom went to an intensive rehab facility where she got ST along with OT and PT every day (not all three on weekends) before having the choice of moving to a stepped down rehab or home with out patient rehab, we chose out patient because it was only the speech she needed and she was able to get more that way, her improvement was remarkable all along the way until she stopped working at it which is when she leveled off (back slid a bit actually). She still uses short phrases in certain situations and will say the opposite of what she means but most often she knows she didn’t say what she means and let’s you know. Interestingly she had an easier time on the phone for a while but again all patient's are different. So I guess my answer is maybe but you, her family needs to do everything possible to have people who know her well there with her to answer questions, be involved and offering their subjective assessments to her care team. The other thing about having someone she knows and trusts by her side is that she may be more apt to try and say what she wants to rather than the few go to answers she feels confident with.

Sounds like Aphasia. I read all the other replies… I will be short with my answer. While the other posts are correct to some degree and off by some degrees. There is always hope each person is an individual each presentation of Aphasia is unique. I agree a full evaluation is warranted and therapy can improve communication. Communication goes both ways. Research your role in communication with an Aphasic person. How you communicate can make all the difference. Too many questions with too much complexity coupled with only auditory input over the phone will set the communication exchange up for failure. Not knowing moms strengths, I can not provide insight on best strategies hence the Speech Language Pathologist evaluation and therapy,,,, go to these appointments and engage!

edit: Neuroplasticity there is hope. Look it up.

As a rehab specialist, I need to ask if she was in a rehabilitation hospital, not a skilled nursing facility, after her stroke. Did she get continued therapy after discharge? Is she getting therapy now? To those who say she can't be helped I disagree, and all the research is on my side. The main reason most patients plateau and stop progressing is because they stop therapy. If she is medically stable and fairly healthy and mobile, she can continue her recovery with appropriate therapy. There is another consideration - her hearing. Strokes can affect sensory perception. If her hearing is impaired, she will have worse communication skills regardless of her language abilities. Does she have dysarthria? Most patients recover well from hemorrhagic strokes unless they have excessive comorbidities or are medically non-compliant. Get Mom evaluated by PT, OT and SLP and get her into treatment. Also, get her hearing tested. Consider depression as another reason she is non-communicative. There may be potential for recovery with appropriate interventions, but Mom is unable to articulate her needs.

Sorry to her about ur mom. U should partake to see a neuro doc or a brain doc to have a scan to check her brain waves. It could also bd the medications. I pray everything works out for the best. Make sure she’s getting all her nutrients to help with her brain cells.

Her speech center in the brain has been permanently damaged by the strokes. There is no way to reconnect the broken cables. The ones that were not cut, only damaged, might have a small chance to improve with speech therapy during the first year after the stroke. After two years, the damage will become permanent.

Damaged brain syndrome, no fix, just acceptance.

Stroke is the most common cause of aphasia. When either ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke result in brain tissue damage in areas of the brain that are of particular importance to speech and language, a person may develop aphasia. Aphasia is the loss of ability to understand or express speech, caused by brain damage.

As far as 'fixing' the issue, you'd need to speak to her doctor but I wouldn't hold out much hope for that. Consider that your mom is now working with what she has, post stroke, and doing the best she can. Has she had any therapy afterward?

Best of luck

How long ago was the stroke? What part of her brain was affected? How severe was the stroke? How old is your mother? How fully functional is she? Are there any other medical conditions that are part of her history?
Are you talking to her only on the phone? Are you talking to her in person?
"Fixed" is relative, against the person's own physical problems-if any.
I would discuss your concerns with her care team.