What if you couldn't couldn't read this page or enjoy a newspaper or a book? For some people with a severe brain injury, that can be reality during rehabilitation and beyond. A book club for brain injury offer a way to provide the joy of reading.
Because some of our patients have not recovered reading skill yet, our enterprising staff at Brinlee Creek Ranch created a weekly read-aloud book club.
Club members are currently reading Chicken Soup for the Soul. This inspiring collection of short stories was a good fit for patients who have difficulty with memory. (Reading a chapter a week from a longer book didn't work so well. They soon learned that no one could remember the story between weekly meetings! Including the reader!)
The book club for brain injury provides socialization and also offers therapeutic benefits. Reading stories aloud helps build listening skills and the ability to focus. After stories, the group leader might ask what the group thinks about the story or what they would do in a situation like that. Discussing stories gently coaxes people to talk, which strengthens speech skills.
But reading aloud isn't confined just to the book club. There's also a news group which reads the newspaper aloud. Everyone especially loves advice columns. The group will hear the question posed, then everyone weighs in on what advice they'd give before the printed answer is read.
Pate tries to customize treatment for each person. A blind patient received audio books. And one patient had a lot of anxiety at night and rehab technicians found that reading aloud to him each night was very soothing and helped him sleep.
Great ideas also pop up at the same time elsewhere....Pate's Fort Worth location, Savanna Oaks Ranch, started their book club for brain injury to help people at a higher level of independence who hoped to return to work or school, reading general interest books to recover reading and comprehension skills.
Did you know reading is great for the brain? Find out more!
Read Scholastic's professional paper
Read how reading improves brain connectivity and function
Download a list of brain injury books that were written by people who have been there.