What is Aphasia?

Aphasia is a loss of language, not a loss of intellect. Aphasia can be characterized as a loss of being able to produce and understand language both verbally and written.

Many people do not understand why those living with aphasia have trouble producing or understanding language. Our brains process the sounds that we hear in conversation with other people, between characters in a TV show, or from an announcement on a speaker and translate them into meaningful words. Someone with aphasia may have damage to their brain in the area responsible for comprehending speech (Wernicke’s area). In contrast, other people with aphasia may have damage to the brain in the area responsible for producing speech (Broca’s area). Depending on where damage occurs to the brain, a person with aphasia may have difficulty with one or more aspects of language.

What Causes Aphasia?

A brain injury or a stroke typically causes aphasia. Other events such as surgery to remove a part of the brain or a tumor or abuse of drugs or alcohol may also cause it. To give it perspective, aphasia affects over 1 million Americans and 1/3 of all stroke patients develop it.

Symptoms

When someone has aphasia, a person may:

Speak in brief or incomplete sentences
Speak in incoherent sentences
Use a lot of pausing sounds or words, such as “um.”
Wrong-word Substitute or sound for another
Gibberish style of Communication
Inability to comprehend conversation
Write sentences that don’t make sense

Different Styles of Aphasia

Expressive

Also known as Broca’s or nonfluent aphasia. Individuals with this pattern of aphasia may understand what other people are saying better than they can communicate. Individuals struggle to get words out. They often speak in concise sentences and omit words. For example, a person might say, “Want food” or “Walk park today.”

Comprehensive

Also known as fluent or Wernicke’s aphasia. Individuals may speak easily and fluently but in long, complex, incoherent sentences with unrecognizable, incorrect, or unnecessary words. Individuals usually struggle to comprehend spoken language well and often don’t realize that others can’t understand them.

Comprehensive

This style of aphasia 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.

What Treatments Are There for Aphasia?

Will Someone Recover?

Sometimes. Depending on what caused a person to have aphasia, a person may recover fully, partially, or not at all. Someone may have difficulty using or understanding some words or a category of words, while others may have no trouble at all. Over time, as long as someone is receiving speech therapy and performing activities that challenge them to use language, they should see some improvement as time goes on.

Our Recommended Digital Exercises

Like knitting a pattern for a scarf, Embroidery requires visual attention, verbal memory, and executive function for participants to put together a word of a given theme out of the letters presented. Depending on the level of difficulty, the first letter or two letters may be given, and tiles may or may not be connected diagonally.

One of HappyNeuron Pro’s most popular exercises, Split Words requires participants to put together words of a given category using the fragments presented. Help can be given in the form of placing the fragments of words in order and/or coloring the connecting fragments differently. This exercise can be done one-on-one or as a group activity.

Screenshot of HappyNeuron Pro exercise Private Eye

Work on reading skills and letter discrimination with this exercise. Private Eye is used for visual attention, but the skills practiced here can improve reading capacity. This exercise can also be used as a group activity.

In Writing in the Stars, grammar, word choice, and executive functions are exercised as users must fill in the star with the right words in as few attempts as possible. This exercise is also great for group activities as participants can point or call out a word and its corresponding location.

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Aphasia

What Is It?

Aphasia is a loss of language, not a loss of intellect. Aphasia can be characterized as a loss of being able to produce and understand language both verbally and written. Many people do not understand why those living with aphasia have trouble producing or understanding language. Our brains process the sounds that we hear in conversation with other people, between characters in a TV show, or from an announcement on a speaker and translate them into meaningful words. Someone with aphasia may have damage to their brain in the area responsible for comprehending speech (Wernicke’s area). In contrast, other people with aphasia may have damage to the brain in the area responsible for producing speech (Broca’s area). Depending on where damage occurs to the brain, a person with aphasia may have difficulty with one or more aspects of language.

What Can Be Done for Aphasia Patients?

People with aphasia often work with a speech-language pathologist to rehabilitate their language skills. In therapy, a speech therapist may work with their client on recognizing letters and what sounds they make, words and their meanings, and how to put together sentences that make sense. In addition, individuals may attend a support group to practice conversing with other people and understanding language. Depending on what caused a person to have aphasia, a person may recover fully, partially, or not at all. Someone may have difficulty using or understanding some words or a category of words, while others may have no trouble at all. Over time, as long as someone is receiving speech therapy and performing activities that challenge them to use language, they should see some improvement as time goes on.