Aphasia is a condition that impairs a person's ability to communicate through speech, writing, and comprehension due to brain damage, most commonly from a stroke. It affects language production and understanding in both verbal and written forms. The severity depends on the cause and extent of brain damage. Treatment focuses on speech and language therapy to help relearn skills, with family support through communication aids. Aphasia can cause speaking in incomplete sentences, substituting or misusing words, and not comprehending conversations. There are different patterns depending on impacted areas, such as fluent speech with nonsensical language or difficulty speaking and understanding.
Aphasia is a condition that impairs a person's ability to communicate through speech, writing, and comprehension due to brain damage, most commonly from a stroke. It affects language production and understanding in both verbal and written forms. The severity depends on the cause and extent of brain damage. Treatment focuses on speech and language therapy to help relearn skills, with family support through communication aids. Aphasia can cause speaking in incomplete sentences, substituting or misusing words, and not comprehending conversations. There are different patterns depending on impacted areas, such as fluent speech with nonsensical language or difficulty speaking and understanding.
Aphasia is a condition that impairs a person's ability to communicate through speech, writing, and comprehension due to brain damage, most commonly from a stroke. It affects language production and understanding in both verbal and written forms. The severity depends on the cause and extent of brain damage. Treatment focuses on speech and language therapy to help relearn skills, with family support through communication aids. Aphasia can cause speaking in incomplete sentences, substituting or misusing words, and not comprehending conversations. There are different patterns depending on impacted areas, such as fluent speech with nonsensical language or difficulty speaking and understanding.
Aphasia is a condition that impairs a person's ability to communicate through speech, writing, and comprehension due to brain damage, most commonly from a stroke. It affects language production and understanding in both verbal and written forms. The severity depends on the cause and extent of brain damage. Treatment focuses on speech and language therapy to help relearn skills, with family support through communication aids. Aphasia can cause speaking in incomplete sentences, substituting or misusing words, and not comprehending conversations. There are different patterns depending on impacted areas, such as fluent speech with nonsensical language or difficulty speaking and understanding.
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APHASIA
Overview
Aphasia is a condition that robs you of the ability to communicate. It can affect your ability to speak, write and understand language, both verbal and written.
Aphasia typically occurs suddenly after a stroke or a head injury. But it can also come on gradually from a slow-growing brain tumor or a disease that causes progressive, permanent damage (degenerative). The severity of aphasia depends on a number of conditions, including the cause and the extent of the brain damage.
Once the cause has been addressed, the main treatment for aphasia is speech and language therapy. The person with aphasia relearns and practices language skills and learns to use other ways to communicate. Family members often participate in the process, helping the person communicate.
Symptoms
Aphasia is a sign of some other condition, such as a stroke or a brain tumor.
A person with aphasia may:
Speak in short or incomplete sentences
Speak in sentences that don't make sense
Substitute one word for another or one sound for another Speak unrecognizable words Not understand other people's conversation Write sentences that don't make sense
Patterns of aphasia
People with aphasia may have different patterns of strengths and weaknesses. Expressive aphasia. This is also called Broca's or nonfluent aphasia. People with this pattern of aphasia may understand what other people say better than they can speak. People with this pattern of aphasia struggle to get words out, speak in very short sentences and omit words. A person might say, "Want food" or "Walk park today."
A listener can usually understand the meaning, but people with this aphasia pattern are often aware of their difficulty communicating and may get frustrated. They may also have right-sided paralysis or weakness.
Comprehensive aphasia. People with this pattern of aphasia (also called
fluent or Wernicke's aphasia) may speak easily and fluently in long, complex sentences that don't make sense or include unrecognizable, incorrect or unnecessary words. They usually don't understand spoken language well and often don't realize that others can't understand them.
Global aphasia. This aphasia pattern is characterized by poor
comprehension and difficulty forming words and sentences. Global aphasia results from extensive damage to the brain's language networks. People with global aphasia have severe disabilities with expression and comprehension.
