Aphasia

People who have aphasia can have trouble with things like speaking, reading, or listening. Aphasia often comes on suddenly, due to something like a Research estimates about There are two different categories of aphasia and different conditions associated with each type. Read on to discover more about the different types of aphasia. Aphasia is broken down into two categories: • Nonfluent aphasia. Speech is difficult or halting, and some words may be absent. However, a listener can still understand what the speaker is trying to say. • Fluent aphasia. Speech flows more easily, but the content of the message lacks meaning. In the chart below, we’ll break down the different types of aphasia. Category Type Symptoms Nonfluent You know what you want to say and can understand others. However, speech is difficult and requires great effort. Short phrases are often used, such as “Want food.” Some weakness or Nonfluent This is the most severe aphasia. You can’t produce and sometimes can’t understand language. However, you’ll still have normal cognitive ability in areas not related to language and communication. Nonfluent transcortical motor aphasia You can understand language but can’t communicate fluently. You may use short phrases, have a delay in response time, and frequently repeat things. F luent You can speak in long sentences. However, these sentences have no obvious meaning and can contain unnecessary or even made up words. Trouble with understanding language and with repeating...

What is Aphasia? Aphasia is an impairment of language, affecting the production or comprehension of speech and the ability to read or write. Aphasia is always due to injury to the brain-most commonly from a stroke, particularly in older individuals. But brain injuries resulting in aphasia may also arise from head trauma, from brain tumors, or from infections. Aphasia can be so severe as to make communication with the patient 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. More commonly, however, multiple aspects of communication are impaired, while some channels remain accessible for a limited exchange of information. It is the job of the professional to determine the amount of function available in each of the channels for the comprehension of language, and to assess the possibility that treatment might enhance the use of the channels that are available. Below you can find more information on the different types of aphasia such as Global, Broca’s, Wernicke’s, Primary Progressive, Anomic, and Mixed Non-fluent aphasia. Types of aphasia Over a century of experience with the study of aphasia has taught us that particular components of language may be particularly damaged in some individuals. We have also learned to recognize different types or patterns of aphasia that correspond to the location of t...

Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a neurological condition that causes you to lose language skills. It’s a type of dementia and may be a sign of Alzheimer’s disease. At first, you may have trouble finding the correct words for objects or understanding others. Over time, many people with PPA lose all verbal or written communication skills. Overview What is primary progressive aphasia? Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a neurological disorder that affects a person’s ability to speak and communicate. Aphasia is a language disorder that results from damage to key parts of your brain that are responsible for understanding or producing speech and/or writing. When the aphasia is from a brain disease that gets worse over time (progressive neurodegenerative disease), healthcare providers call it “primary progressive aphasia.” Initially, people may have trouble finding the right words to express themselves. The condition worsens over time, as people lose their ability to write, speak or understand language. Most commonly, the underlying cause of PPA is a What are the types of primary progressive aphasia? Experts divide PPA into three sub-types: • Lopogenic progressive aphasia may cause difficulty finding the right words or understanding others. • Progressive non-fluent aphasia may cause poor grammar or difficulty talking fluently. • Semantic dementia may cause difficulty naming objects or understanding the meaning of stand-alone words. Who does primary progressive aphasia affe...

A person with aphasia may have trouble understanding, speaking, reading, or writing. Speech-language pathologists are professionals who work with people with communication problems and can diagnose and treat the type of difficulty you’re having. On this page: • • • • • • • Aphasia is a language disorder that affects how you communicate. It is caused by damage to the language centers of the brain, usually in the left side of the brain, that control understanding, speaking, and using signed languages. Aphasia does not make you less smart or cause problems with the way you think. However, it may affect your ability to communicate your thoughts easily. Aphasia may also make it hard for you to understand, read, or write. Aphasia can affect people in different ways, and no two people will have the same changes or recovery. The severity and recovery of aphasia depend on a number of things—including the cause, the extent of damage to the brain, family support, and treatment. Aphasia can lead to trouble communicating, understanding language, reading, and writing. Communicating You may find that you go through one or several of these experiences: • You cannot think of the words that you want to say—or you are trying to find words that are “on the tip of your tongue.” • You say the wrong word. Sometimes, you may say something related in meaning (like “fish” instead of “chicken”) or in sound (like “art” instead of “arm”). Sometimes, you might use a word that is not related in meaning ...

Communication Strategies: Some Dos and Don’ts The impact of aphasia on relationships may be profound, or only slight. No two people with aphasia are alike with respect to severity, former speech and language skills, or personality. But in all cases it is essential for the person to communicate as successfully as possible from the very beginning of the recovery process. Below are some suggestions to help communicate with a person with aphasia. You can also check out our • Make sure you have the person’s attention before you start. • Minimize or eliminate background noise (TV, radio, other people). • Keep your own voice at a normal level, unless the person has indicated otherwise. • Keep communication simple, but adult. Simplify your own sentence structure and reduce your rate of speech. Emphasize key words. Don’t “talk down” to the person with aphasia. • Give them time to speak. Resist the urge to finish sentences or offer words. • Communicate with drawings, gestures, writing and facial expressions in addition to speech. • Confirm that you are communicating successfully with “yes” and “no” questions. • Praise all attempts to speak and downplay any errors. Avoid insisting that that each word be produced perfectly. • Engage in normal activities whenever possible. Do not shield people with aphasia from family or ignore them in a group conversation. Rather, try to involve them in family decision-making as much as possible. Keep them informed of events but avoid burdening them w...

What Is Aphasia? Aphasia is a language problem. It is an impairment in the ability to understand or express words or their nonverbal equivalents. There are many different types of aphasia, but most fall into one of three categories: expressive, receptive, and mixed. Expressive Aphasia Broca's (expressive) aphasia involves problems with spelling, sentence structure, verbal reasoning, and/or the rate of speech. With this type of aphasia, a person is able to understand language but may have difficulty speaking fluently and/or forming complete sentences. Instead, words are spoken in a telegraphic manner (with less than three to four words per sentence) using single words and gestures to convey meaning. The smaller words, such as articles (a, an, the), and prepositions (of, from, etc.) are typically omitted. For example, a person with Broca’s aphasia or nonfluent aphasia talking about a plane trip might say, “Plane . . . me. . . .” and spread his or her arms like wings to make the point. Broca’s aphasia also involves the inability to repeat or write things that are heard. Another characteristic of expressive aphasia is when people experience neologisms, a condition marked by grammatical confusion, inappropriate word usage, and the substitution of nonsense words for real words. Anomia, another form of expressive aphasia, renders a person completely unable to name (familiar) objects, almost as if he or she were suddenly required to converse in a foreign language. A lesser form of...

What Is Aphasia? Aphasia gets in the way of a person's ability to communicate, but it doesn’t impair intelligence. People who have aphasia may have a hard time speaking and finding the "right" words to complete their thoughts. They may also have problems understanding conversation, reading and comprehending written words, writing words, and using numbers. People with aphasia may also repeat words or phrases. Symptoms of Aphasia The main symptoms of aphasia include: • Trouble speaking • Struggling with finding the right term or word • Using strange or wrong words in conversation • Trouble understanding what other people say or following conversations • Writing sentences that don’t make sense or trouble expressing yourself in writing • Speaking in short sentences or phrases • Using unrecognizable words Aphasia may be mild or severe. With mild aphasia, the person may be able to converse, yet have trouble finding the right word or understanding complex conversations. Serious aphasia makes the person less able to communicate. The person may say little and may not take part in or understand any conversation. Some people with aphasia have problems understanding what others are saying. The problems occur particularly when the person is Types of Aphasia There are different types of aphasia. Each can cause language issues that range from mild to serious. But the verbal expressions can mostly be categorized as fluent or nonfluent aphasia. Fluent vs. nonfluent aphasia Fluent aphasia. ...