Cristina, Erin’s Spanish teacher from San Jose, visited today. Erin took 2 years of Spanish from her at West Valley College in Saratoga, and also Erin and Steve took a Spanish Immersion weekend superivised by Cristina. When Cristina got ready to leave, I mentioned that I had not heard them speaking Spanish. With that, Erin just rattled off sentence after sentence of Spanish with comments from Cristina.
Clark’s son Jim is greatly improved. He is out of danger of a recurrent stroke and is speaking sentences, but like Erin, has trouble naming things. He hasn’t lost his sense of humor. Yesterday the speech therapist had him fill in the blanks. She said, “Open the ____.” He said, “window”. She said, “Close the ____.” He said, “door”. She said, “Sit on the ____.” He said, “toilet”. For those interested in medical terms, he has been officially diagnosed with anomic aphasia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anomic_aphasia
Barb, you are right. I am hearing about more medical terms than I ever dreamt of.
Barbara
Jan 31, 2012 @ 22:14:26
How wonderful that Jim is out of the woods for another stroke! Did he have an MRI that showed that the vegetation was gone? Will he still have to have the pick line to his heart for the infusions?
Jan 31, 2012 @ 23:04:04
Joan, I don’t think Jim had another MRI, so I don’t know how they determined thathe was ok. In fact, they want to send him home tomorrow! I don’t know how that will work with the IV PICC line. He will have to have 2-hour drips 3 times a day for 6-8 weeks..
Jan 31, 2012 @ 22:24:14
So glad to hear the good news about Clark’s son. If he can come up with those words it seems promising for a recovery.
How nice that Erin’s Spanish teacher came to visit. I wonder if the part of the brain for language is different for the part that somes up with nouns. When I was studying Japanese I would find myself coming up with French words. I thought there must be a special place in the brain for foreign languages. Just my theory. But it may account for Erin chattering away in Spanish.
Barbara
Jan 31, 2012 @ 23:14:50
I am like you, Barb. When I try to speak Spanish, the first words to crop into my head are French. I think it is because I learned French first. I do wonder if foreigh languages use a different part of the brain. Our ophthalmalogist suggested Erin try to sing. He thought that it used a different part of the brain form speech.