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Language Is More Than Words -- What Is Aphasia?
To understand aphasia in-depth, it’s important to understand language.
Contrary to popular belief, language isn’t just words. Language encompasses a person’s ability to recognize as well as use words/sentences. Much of a person’s capability to recognize and use words/sentences resides on the left side of the brain.
Your ability to use language is affected if you suffer from a stroke or any other injury affecting the left hemisphere/side of your brain.
How Does Language Help?
Language helps us communicate, understand what others are saying, ask questions, read, write, speak, listen as well as comment and interchange. When a person suffers from a stroke among other injuries affecting the left side of their brain, that person has difficulty using language in one or more of the above ways.
What Is Aphasia?
Aphasia can be defined as a language disorder that affects a person’s ability to communicate or use language. The disorder is usually caused by strokes which affect the areas of the brain responsible for controlling speech and language.
Symptoms of Aphasia
Aphasia symptoms are exhibited as difficulties in using language/communicating. The most notable symptoms include;
- Difficulty understanding what others say
- Difficulty asking questions
- Difficulty reading and writing
- Difficulty speaking and listening
- Difficulty commenting
Effects of Aphasia
Contrary to popular belief, aphasia doesn’t affect intelligence. Individuals who suffer from stroke remain mentally alert although their ability to use language is compromised or impaired. Aphasia patients tend to have fragmented or jumbled speech that is hard and sometimes impossible to understand.
Aphasia patients may also have trouble finding words, speaking, processing long/infrequent words and doing math.
Connecting with People Who Have Aphasia: How Do They Feel?
When a person has problems using language, they tend to feel isolated since they can’t communicate effectively with others at home, work and even in social settings. Aphasia sufferers also have problems doing daily activities because they can’t communicate with others effectively. Aphasia can also result in frustration and confusion. People with aphasia tend to act differently because of the language/communication disconnect.
Before discussing how you can help someone with aphasia, let’s first take a look at the main types of aphasia.
Types of Aphasia
Aphasia is characterized mainly on where the damage occurred and/or the severity. There are 3 main types of aphasia namely; Global aphasia, Broca's aphasia and Wernicke's aphasia.
a. Global aphasia
Global aphasia affects a person’s ability to speak, repeat phrases, name objects as well as follow commands. A person with global aphasia can’t be able to do all these things entirely/completely. Global aphasia patients have severe communication difficulties i.e. understanding words/sentences, forming words/sentences, pronouncing a few words consecutively.
b. Broca’s aphasia
Broca’s aphasia (also referred to as expressive aphasia) inhibits a person’s ability to express themselves although a person knows exactly what he/she needs or wants to say. People suffering from Broca's aphasia can’t find the perfect words to use when communicating. Broca’s aphasia affects the frontal area of the left side of the brain making it very difficult to form complete sentences as well as understand sentences. Patients with Broca's aphasia also have problems following directions that involve left and right, above and below, etc. They tend to make mistakes when following directions where such words are used.
c. Wernicke’s aphasia
Individuals suffering from Wernicke's aphasia have severe difficulties understanding what other people are saying as well as controlling what they are saying. As a result, Wernicke's aphasia sufferers tend to say things which don’t make sense and fail to realize it. Wernicke’s aphasia sufferers also tend to have difficulties understanding what others are saying as well as what they are saying since the disorder affects the region of the brain that is responsible for helping us understand and use words.
How Can You Help?
Is your friend or family member suffering from aphasia? Do you want to help them but you don’t know what to do? If yes, here’s what you can do.
First and foremost, it’s important to help your loved one seek the best medical attention. Aphasia sufferers need to seek help from speech-language pathologists (SLPs). Aphasia sufferers also need to see a counsellor to help them with the stress and frustrations caused by the disorder. You should find the best speech-language pathologist to help your loved one recover in the best way possible.
Family members & friends are also encouraged to be open about the challenges of their loved ones so that other people can understand them as well. It is also advisable to simplify language/communication into yes or no questions as well as short sentences which are straight to the point. It is also important to help aphasia patients cope with their frustrations. You can do this by being patient when communicating with a person who has aphasia. You should also involve them when making decisions that affect them.
Related Posts
Auditory processing refers to how the brain becomes aware of sounds and makes sense of them, while language processing is how the brain becomes aware of and makes sense of language. Children with auditory or language processing challenges may be able to express themselves quite well, but find it more difficult to understand what is being said, especially when a lot of information is presented at one time. They may: Have difficulty following directions, especially if they include multiple steps or sequential concepts (first do this and then do that) or temporal concepts (do this before you do that). Use words that may not be specific (pass me that “stuff”). Misunderstand directions. Tell events out of order (jumping from the beginning to the end and then the middle). Have a difficult time answering “who what where when why” questions. Have difficulty with rhyming. Have difficulty reading. Appear to have not been paying attention. Have poor organizational skills. If you have concerns about your child’s language, speak to your health care practitioner or Contact Our Office to arrange for an assessment with one of our qualified speech-language pathologists.
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Our team specializes in speech and language therapy, and occupational therapy for children, adults, and seniors. Our offices are in Thunder Bay, Ontario, but we travel to communities in Northwestern Ontario.
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