What is Aphasia?
Aphasia may be one of the effects of a stroke or brain injury if you talk to your doctor. But the first thing you may ask is, what is aphasia? We will cover the basics of the disorder and what you can do to get help.
Defining Aphasia
Aphasia affects writing, reading and speaking skills. It affects the left side of the brain, which handles comprehension and language ability. Aphasia doesn’t affect your loved one’s intelligence or function as a normal brain, despite how it looks.
Conversation usually requires two parts, speech and language. Aphasia is a disorder that can be caused by injuries or changes in the language processing part of the brain. Without it, someone can produce sounds, but have little or no idea on what they should say.
Typical Signs of Aphasia
People with aphasia may show one of the speaking behaviors:
● Their sentences are incomplete.
● Their correct sounds are replaced with incorrect ones.
● They say words that make no sense.
● It’s difficult to comprehend what other people are saying.
Aphasia can affect the social life and careers of people that have it. The most significant combination that will help is human interaction and speech therapy.
How People Get Aphasia
Aphasia is usually caused by strokes. 25 to 40% of people who have a stroke will develop aphasia, according to the National Aphasia Association.
It is not restricted to stroke patients either. If an injury results in brain damage, it can affect language function. There are possible brain tumors, traumatic brain injury, and brain infections that can result in aphasia.
Different Kinds of Aphasia
Helping someone with Aphasia may vary depending on the type. Here are some of the common types of Aphasia.
Receptive: Wernicke’s Aphasia
The name ‘fluent aphasia’ refers to the fact that reading and writing are more affected by Wernicke’s aphasia than speech skills. They may not be aware that they are saying strange things in speech.
There are a lot of common symptoms to this, including less reading and writing skills, lack of understanding with word meanings, and making sentences that don’t make sense.
Expressive: Broca’s Aphasia
This form of aphasia is sometimes referred to as nonfluent aphasia because they make effortful speech. People with Broca’s aphasia can read, write and comprehend speech but have a hard time producing them.
The types of behaviors that are common are short utterances of less than 4 words, clumsy and reduced writing skills, and difficulty in using vocabulary.
Anomic Aphasia
Anomic aphasia makes it difficult for someone to say what they mean. Their sentences are in good shape, but they can use vague expressions or express thoughts in a roundabout manner.
Aphasia symptoms in this type often have a hard time finding the right words when speaking and writing, using more significant and straight-forward words. They also make sentences that are often ambiguous.
Global Aphasia
This can be seen as severe aphasia, and means that both producing language and receiving it is impaired. Depending on the severity of brain damage, cognitive and intellectual abilities can still be intact.
They might use words that are limited and recognizable, have little to no writing skills, or show lack of comprehension in both spoken and written language.
There are other variations of aphasia. It’s a good idea to get in touch with a speech-language pathologist that can help evaluate the situation. They are able to provide more information about what can be done to improve their condition.
Getting Speech Therapy Help
Aphasia can often be treated with speech- language therapy. It can sometimes improve on its own, but with hours invested in evidence-based and research therapy, the potential restoration will be better.
Your loved one’s speech and language skills will be assessed by the speech pathologist. Treatments will depend on the severity of aphasia, but speech therapy will help with:
● Improving speech and language ability through exercises.
● Restoring natural communication through social participation.
● Using alternate ways to communicate.
You can talk to a speech pathologist from the hospital or your doctor. It is also possible to choose an SLP from a private practice directly that can serve you.
Speech therapy and persistent practice work best together. There are a lot of ways that you can help your loved one improve their quality of life everyday and at home.
Would you like to know more about speech therapy for Aphasia? You can get a free consultation and help us connect with your loved one.