Aphasia
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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 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”. (Sarno 23)
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”.(Eiesenson 37) “About one million persons in the United States currently have aphasia”.(www.aphasia.org)
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, for some reason, 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 Brocas aphasia have damage to the frontal lobe of the brain”. (www.aphasia.org) These individuals frequently speak in short, meaningful phrases that are produced with great effort. Brocas 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 Brocas 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”. (Jakobson 43) Individuals with Brocas 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 Brocas aphasia often have right-sided weakness or paralysis of the arm and leg because the frontal lobe is also important for body movement”. (Jakobson 45)
In contrast to Brocas aphasia, damage to the temporal lobe may result in a fluent aphasia that is called Wernickes aphasia. Individuals with Wernickes aphasia may speak in long sentences that have no meaning, add unnecessary words, and even create new “words.” For example, someone with Wernickes aphasia may say, “You know that smoodle pinkered and that I want to get him round and take care of him like you want before,” meaning “The dog needs to go out so I will take him for a walk.” (Eiesenson 45) “Individuals with Wernickes aphasia usually have great difficulty understanding speech and are therefore often unaware of their mistakes”. (Eiesenson 53) “These individuals usually have no body weakness because their brain injury is not near the parts of the brain that control movement”. (Eiesenson 74)
A third type of aphasia, global aphasia, results from damage to extensive portions of the language areas of the brain. “Individuals with global aphasia have severe communication difficulties and may be extremely limited in their ability to speak or comprehend language”. ()
Aphasia is usually first recognized by the physician who treats the individual for his or her brain injury. Frequently this is a neurologist. The physician typically performs tests that require the individual to follow commands, answer questions, name objects, and converse. If the physician suspects aphasia, the individual is often referred to a speech-language pathologist, who performs a comprehensive examination of the persons ability to understand, speak, read, and write.
In some instances an individual will completely recover from aphasia without treatment. “This type of “spontaneous recovery” usually occurs following a transient ischemic attack (TIA), a kind of stroke in which the blood flows to the brain is temporarily interrupted but quickly restored. In these circumstances, language abilities may return in a few hours or a few days”. () For most cases of aphasia, however, language recovery is not as quick or as complete. While many individuals with aphasia also experience a period of partial spontaneous recovery (in which some language abilities return over a period of a few days to a month after the brain injury), some amount of aphasia typically remains. In these instances, speech-language therapy is often helpful. Recovery usually continues over a 2-year period. Most people believe that the most effective treatment begins early in the recovery process. “Some of the factors that influence the amount of improvement include the cause of the brain damage, the area of the brain that was damaged, the extent of the brain injury, and the age and health of the individual”. () Additional factors include motivation, handedness, and educational level.
“Aphasia therapy strives to improve an individuals