What is
Aphasia?
THE DISORDER, IT’S EFFECTS, AND
TREATMENT
You will learn…
•Definition
•Types of Aphasia
•Symptoms of Aphasia
•Treatment for Aphasia
•Funding sources
•Resources
Definition
•Aphasia is a language disorder
•It can cause problems with
understanding, speaking, reading
or writing, and is primarily caused
by stroke.
•A person with aphasia typically
maintains their cognitive skills and
have NOT lost their intelligence.
•More people have Aphasia than
Parkinson’s, Cerebral Palsy, or
Muscular Dystrophy, yet most
people have never heard of it.
How is Aphasia primarily required?
•Stroke (cerebral vascular accident or CVA)
•Head trauma (traumatic brain injury or TBI)
•Brain tumors
•Brain infections
•Other neurological causes
Common types of Aphasia
Fluent Aphasia
Fluent Aphasia (also known as receptive aphasia) the ability to grasp the meaning of spoken words
and sentences is impaired, while the ease of producing connected speech is not very affected.
Reading and writing are often severely impaired.
Nonfluent Aphasia
Progressive nonfluent aphasia (PNFA) is one of three clinical syndromes associated with
frontotemporal lobar degeneration. PNFA has an insidious onset of language deficits over time as
opposed to other stroke-based aphasias, which occur acutely following trauma to the brain.
Global Aphasia
Global Aphasia is considered the most severe. These individuals will have a great deal of trouble
speaking, understanding, writing and reading, but again, skills may vary. For example, they may be
better at understanding than at speaking or vice versa.
Common characteristics
•The challenges that people with
•Some people may also demonstrate
aphasia have will be very different.
a level of difficulty with writing,
The symptoms will vary greatly
understanding, and/or reading.
between individuals, but what they
all have in common is the challenge
of communicating.
Common characteristics continued…
People may have trouble speaking and writing. For example:
Have difficulty finding the word they want to say
Be able to only say one or two words at a time
Leave words out of sentences making it difficult to be understood
Have trouble putting words together that make a sentence make sense to their
reader/listener
• Have problems spelling words
• Say yes when they mean no
• People with these challenges often have what is commonly known as Broca’s Aphasia
because it occurs when Broca’s area of the brain incurs the injury.
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More common characteristics
People may have trouble understanding (making sense of what is being
said) and reading. For example:
Be unable to follow even very simple directions
Need information repeated or said in a different way
Have difficulty following conversations
May need visual cues to help them understand
Have trouble understanding print
Speak words that don’t make sense and at the same time, know that others don’t
understand them.
• Receptive Aphasia is often referred to as Wernicke’s Aphasia because it occurs when
Wernicke’s Area of the brain incurs the injury.
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Primary Progressive Aphasia
•A less common type of aphasia where people slowly lose their ability to
talk, read, write and comprehend over time.
•Typically in conjunction with dementia or a progressive neurological
disease.
•Unlike with a stroke or brain trauma, there is no treatment to reverse this
aphasia.
A person with Aphasia may also have:
•Dysarthria - slurred, quiet or nasal
speech caused by muscle weakness
or tightness
•Apraxia – a motor-muscle
impairment caused by problems
getting speech muscles to do what
the brain wants them to do. This
can cause mixed-up sounds in
words, saying wrong words or
sounds, saying different sounds
and/or words every time, or
struggling to say words
Additional features of Aphasia
•Aphasia ROBS you of your ability to communicate!
•Aphasia does not discriminate. All ages, races, nationalities and gender
may get aphasia.
•A person may also have physical disabilities including weakness or
paralysis of their right side.
Challenges Aphasia may cause for people
The list is long:
•Difficulties at work
•Relationships
•Day to day functions
•Communicating w/in the Medical community
•Shopping, eating out, transportation, telephone
Recovery
As a person’s brain heals, a person’s skills may improve.
• Spontaneous recovery is improvement right after the stroke. (generally over a period
of 6 months)
• Recovery varies from person to person, ranging from days to little or no improvement
over time.
• A person with aphasia should seek treatment from a speech-language pathologist
(SLP) who is trained to work with people who have speech and language problems like
aphasia.
• Treatment may happen in hospitals, rehabilitation centers, nursing homes, clinics,
private practice, or the person’s home.
Speech Therapy Intervention
In speech therapy the SLP will:
• Test a person’s language skills including their understanding of writing, and the
understanding of objects and pictures.
• Treat the problems the person is having.
• Educate the person and their family in ways to communicate.
• Identify the appropriateness of augmentative communication (AAC) methods if the
person cannot communicate through natural means.
Communication Tips
•Speak slowly
•Give time for a response
•Try gestures, drawing
•Get person’s attention before
speaking
•Keep it simple – don’t talk down to
the person
•Some people are okay with you
helping them to finish their
sentence while others are not ok.
Please ask the person.
•Crowds and background noise can
be difficult
•Repeat
•Keep them engaged in conversation
•DO NOT IGNORE THEM IN A
GROUP CONVERSATION
Funding sources
•Insurance – may have caps or limited time period for services
•Private pay
Resources
To learn more about Aphasia, you can go
to:
•ASHA
• www.asha.org
•American Stroke Association
• http://www.strokeassociation.org/STROKEORG/
•University of Maine, Orono – Telepractice
Group
• Contact Person : Judy Walker at
Judy_Perkins_Walker@umit.maine.edu
• New England Rehab – Aphasia Services –
support group and book club
• http://www.nerhp.com/
•Aphasia Center of Maine or check local
listings within your own state
• https://www.aphasiacenterofmaine.org/
•National Aphasia Association
• www.aphasia.org