Coping With The Communication Disorder Aphasia: What Is Aphasia And How Is It Treated?

What Is Aphasia?

Aphasia is a communication disorder that can arise whenever there is injury to the brain, such as a stroke, a cancer tumor, or blunt force trauma, for example. People who have aphasia find it difficult to communicate, sometimes both orally and through writing. For example, an aphasia sufferer may utter nonsensical words, phrases, or sentences, make grammatical and spelling errors they would not have made prior to becoming inflicted with aphasia, and/or not understand what others are saying to them. The extent of the difficulty that aphasia patients have in communicating usually is directly proportional to the severity of the injury to their brain.

The Three Types Of Aphasia

There are three main types of aphasia: (1) nonfluent aphasia; (2) fluent aphasia; and (3) global aphasia. Nonfluent aphasia typically is attributable to damage suffered to the language-controlling portion of the left frontal region of the brain. People having nonfluent aphasia usually have difficulty forming audible words and tend to speak in truncated sentences. For example, instead of saying “I would like to go to the store”, they may instead say “Go store”. People having nonfluent aphasia also may have some trouble understanding what others are saying to them.

Fluent aphasia usually results from damage that occurs to the language region of the middle, left side of the brain. The hallmark symptoms of fluent aphasia are long, rambling spoken sentences that are filled with nonsensical words and are therefore difficult to comprehend, and also the inability to understand the meaning of what others are saying.

Global aphasia is typically the product of very severe damage to all or several of the many language areas of the brain. People suffering from global aphasia have extreme difficulty speaking, writing and understanding others.

How Is Aphasia Diagnosed And Treated And What Can An Aphasia Patient Do To Best Cope With Its Symptoms??

The first step in diagnosing aphasia is simply to recognize that there is a problem and to seek medical help. When an aphasia sufferer visits the doctor for proper diagnosis of the root of her communication problems, the doctor likely will administer a battery of communication tests to better understand the scope and severity of the patient’s communication deficiencies. The next likely step that the doctor will take is to subject the patient to CAT scan or MRI analysis in order to determine whether the patient has a brain injury, and if so, the extent and cause of the injury.

Once it has been confirmed that a patient in fact has aphasia, the doctor may prescribe speech therapy or even no therapy at all if it is felt that the brain damage is mild and will heal on its own in time. If the brain damage is moderate or severe, however, the doctor is likely to recommend speech therapy, with the realistic goal being merely to improve the patient’s ability to communicate, as full rehabilitation in such instances is unlikely.

When significant communication problems persist in a person, the person can cope with the problems by:

• Carrying a card that explains her condition and the limitations it presents, and which also includes information regarding who to contact on behalf of the person in the event of an emergency
• Instructing family and friends to speak slowly, not to correct the person’s statements, and to include the person in conversation as much as possible
• Joining one of the many aphasia support groups that are made available by organizations such as the National Aphasia Association

If you want to learn more about aphasia and aphasia treatments on behalf of yourself or a loved one, it is recommended that you consult your family doctor. Early diagnosis may be critical to overcoming or stopping the progression of aphasia and your doctor can provide the necessary help in achieving this goal.

References

Mayo Clinic, Aphasia: https://www.mayoclinic.com/health/aphasia/DS00685

Medline Plus, National Institutes of Health, Aphasia: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/aphasia.html

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health, Aphasia: https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/voice/aphasia.htm