What is aphasia?
Aphasia is a language disorder that results from damage to portions of the brain that are responsible for language. For most people, these are parts of the left side (hemisphere) of the brain. Aphasia usually occurs suddenly, often as the result of a stroke or Head injury, but it may also develop slowly, as in the case of a brain tumor. The disorder impairs both the expression and understanding of language as well as reading and writing. Aphasia may co-occur with speech disorders such as dysarthria or apraxia of speech, which also result from brain damage.
Who has aphasia?
Anyone can acquire aphasia, but most people who have aphasia are in their middle to late years. Men and women are equally affected. It is estimated that approximately 80,000 individuals acquire aphasia each year. About one million persons in the United States currently have aphasia.
What causes aphasia?
Aphasia is caused by damage to one or more of the language areas of the brain. Many times, the cause of the brain injury is a stroke. A stroke occurs when blood is unable to reach a part of the brain. Brain cells die when they do not receive their normal supply of blood, which carries oxygen and important nutrients. Other causes of brain injury are severe blows to the head, brain tumors, brain infections, and other conditions of the brain.
Individuals with Broca’s aphasia have damage to the frontal lobe of the brain. These individuals frequently speak in short, meaningful phrases that are produced with great effort. Broca’s aphasia is thus characterized as a nonfluent aphasia. Affected people often omit small words such as “is,” “and,” and “the.” For example, a person with Broca’s aphasia may say, “Walk dog” meaning, “I will take the dog for a walk.” The same sentence could also mean “You take the dog for a walk,” or “The dog walked out of the yard,” depending on the circumstances. Individuals with Broca’s aphasia are able to understand the speech of others to varying degrees. Because of this, they are often aware of their difficulties and can become easily frustrated by their speaking problems. Individuals with Broca’s aphasia often have right-sided weakness or paralysis of the arm and leg because the frontal lobe is also important for body movement.
What is aphasia?
Every human being uses language. Talking, finding the right words, understanding, reading, writing, and making gestures are part of our language use. If as a result of brain damage one or more parts of language use stop functioning properly, this is called aphasia.
Aphasia - A (=non) phasia (=speaking) means therefore that someone can no longer say what he or she wants. He or she cannot use language anymore. Apart from aphasia, paralyses could occur and/or problems with regard to:
- conscious acting,
- observing the surroundings,
- concentrating, taking initiatives, and the memory.
People cannot do two things at the same time anymore.
Many people experience the frustration during their holiday abroad of not being able to clearly state what they mean, or of not properly understanding what the other person says. Even in countries of which we master the language well, we can experience this for example when visiting a doctor. In countries of which we master the language less well, our communication capacities with the local population always become more limited, and we even don’t succeed all the time to order the dish we would really like to eat. People who suffer from aphasia experience these problems every day. Aphasia is therefore a language disorder. There are not two people who suffer from aphasia that are equal: aphasia is different for everyone. The severity and scope of the aphasia depend, among other things, on the location and the severity of the brain damage, the earlier linguistic competence, and someone’s personality. Some people with aphasia can understand language well, but have trouble finding the right words or constructing sentences. Others on the other hand do speak a lot, but what they say is not or difficult to understand for their conversation partner; these people often have great trouble understanding the language. The linguistic competence of most people with aphasia is somewhere between these two extremes. Do notice: someone who suffers from aphasia in general has his or her complete intellectual capacities at his or her disposal!