Cup of confidence: Kai Lee (left), Ken Skelton, and Sarah Barton take speech therapy outside class. Picture: Jane Dyson
MANY espresso lovers have been settling for "lesser" beverages, despite believing that sweet, milky tea should be considered a form of torture.
But while "short black, no sugar, thanks" normally rolls off the tongue like a lozenge, speech difficulties for stroke victims can make the most basic of phrases like this tougher than trying to pronounce Gilbert and Sullivan's Very Model of a Modern Major General with a wired jaw.
Sarah Barton, a Mortdale-based speech therapist, has been helping stroke victims to to specify "mocha" from "macchiato" by practicing at the Buzz Bar cafe.
"It's for anyone who has speech difficulties or trouble finding their words after a stroke," Mrs Barton said.
"One of the things we did at the stroke group was get people to say what they would like to order, then practising it.
"We practise things that they will really do, functional goals that will help people live successfully.
"They practise their order before trying it out in public."
Mrs Barton said the method helped build confidence for her patients.
"It is specifically to do with the word-finding difficulty that people have," she said.
"They'll go along with things and they'll feel a bit silly because they can't remember the words.
"Some people have trouble even saying things like 'I would like the lemon pie'.
"The words escape them."
Mrs Barton, of AllSalt speech and language therapy, said stroke victims often needed patience in order to be understood.
"Your intelligence after a stroke is preserved, but what often happens is you struggle to understand the components of language," she said. "It's a loss of language, not a loss of intelligence."