What is Aphasia?
Aphasia is an impairment of language, affecting the production or comprehension of speech and the ability to read or write. Aphasia often occurs suddenly often following a stroke, traumatic head injury or infection, but it may also develop slowly, as the result of a brain tumor or other progressive neurological disease.
Aphasia can be so severe as to make communication with the person almost impossible, or it can be very mild. It may affect mainly a single aspect of language use, such as the ability to retrieve the names of objects, or the ability to put words together into sentences, or the ability to read.
Importantly, whilst people with aphasia’s ability to speak and or comprehend language is impaired, their intelligence is not affected. One way to think about what having aphasia might feel like is to imagine that you wake up tomorrow to a world where everyone (including you) speaks a foreign language.
You are still you, and just as smart, but talking and listening suddenly takes a lot more effort and concentration (especially if people talk really fast) and sometimes you have to think really hard to find the word for something (even if you know conceptually what it is).
Three Main Patterns of Aphasia
1. Expressive Aphasia
People with this pattern of aphasia may understand what other people say better than they can speak. They often struggle to get words out, speak in very short sentences and omit words.
A listener can usually understand the meaning, but people with this pattern of aphasia are often aware of their difficulty communicating and may get frustrated. It is also known as Broca’s Aphasia due to the areas affected.
2. Comprehensive Aphasia
People with this pattern of aphasia may speak easily and fluently in long, complex sentences however they often struggle with understanding spoken language.
People with this pattern of aphasia may also create sentences with words arranged in what can sound like a random fashion that can be hard for a listener to understand.
However people with this pattern of aphasia usually feel like they should be understood which can be frustrating. It is also known as Wernicke’s Aphasia due to the areas affected.
3. Global Aphasia
This aphasia pattern is characterised by poor comprehension and difficulty forming words and sentences. It occurs when there is damage to both the Broca’s and Wernicke’s language areas in the brain.
Interestingly whilst people with global aphasia can find it extremely difficult to understand spoken language or speak at all, in some cases, they can still communicate well by using written language.