Barely a year ago, Anastasia Heng was fighting for her life.

But these days, the 13-year-old frets more about homework and examinations.

Last December, the Secondary 2 student had a stroke, which is uncommon among children. It happened during a gymnastics practice session.

She felt a sudden pain in her head before she fainted.

On the third day while under observation in hospital, she had an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan.

It showed a clot in her left brain. Anastasia was then transferred to the intensive care unit.

On the fifth day, her condition improved and she was moved to a normal ward.

A week later, she started physiotherapy.

As a result of the stroke, her speech and understanding of language regressed to that of a primary school student and she could not move her legs nor perform daily activities like dressing herself.

Anastasia says of her first few days in hospital: "I don't remember much as I was mostly asleep."

All that time, her mother, Madam Trina Tan, 44, a housewife, was a bundle of nerves.

Madam Tan said: "I had to be strong for Anastasia. I had to explain the situation to her, encourage her and give her hope for recovery."

Her physiotherapy lasted two months. She also had speech therapy sessions, which are ongoing.

>> Next page: Loss of several years' worth of language skills

Ms Victoria Lai, her speech therapist at National University Hospital, said: "Anastasia appears to have lost several years' worth of language skills.

"An additional challenge is that at her age, language abilities are still developing. Therapy for her involved re-teaching rules of language such as plurals and verbs. With the appropriate support and practice, she will internalise these grammatical rules again."

Anastasia said she felt frustrated with her condition at first. "I could read and spell only simple words. I couldn't walk and I had no feeling in my legs. But my parents really encouraged me," she said.

Occupational therapy, meanwhile, had enabled her to resume daily activities like showering and dressing herself. But speech and language proved to be more difficult to master.

As she spoke mostly English at home and was not fluent in Mandarin, she was excused from Mandarin classes when she returned to school in March.

Her speech therapy sessions tackled word retrieval, sentence construction, reading comprehension and writing.

When she returned to school, her teachers gave her remedial lessons.

She was transferred to the Normal stream so she could take her time to recover and adjust to the pace of school.

Asked what she thought of her recently concluded year-end examinations, Anastasia said with a smile: "I think I did average."

Madam Tan said: "I just want to see her progress. I keep telling myself to look forward."

This article was first published in Mind Your Body, The Straits Times.