The legal team at Cuming & Gillespie LLP has helped many victims of brain injuries and their families rebuild their lives and rejoin their Calgary communities in a number of ways. Not only have we represented brain injury victims in litigation related to their injury-causing accidents, we’ve also partnered with Foothills Hospital to help found the Brain Injury Patient Experience Program in order to better understand how these injuries affect the lives of those who suffer from them.

Being so involved with brain injuries and the difficulties they can cause, we were thrilled—and intrigued—to read about on Calgary researcher’s attempt to help brain injury victims overcome language difficulties they currently face…

…using the boardgame Scrabble.

Competitive Scrabble is a really big deal, and the world’s best players have developed whole new ways of looking at language that give them an advantage while on the playing field (that is the board).

Simply put, some players use parts of their brain other than the typical language centers to recognize patterns of letters and put them together into words. Sophia Van Hees of the University of Calgary hopes that through studying these players’ brain activity, she can help patients whose language centers have been damaged learn to use other parts of their brain to process words and gain back some of the communication abilities they have lost.

Not all brain injury victims suffer from diminished language skills, but many experience severe setbacks and often face a lifetime if rehabilitation. If you or a family member has suffered a serious brain injury due to some else’s negligence and you would like a free consultation to better understand your rights and options, please contact our office today.