Aphasia Definition, Reason, Symptoms, Treatment
Aphasia is a language disorder that affects the production or understanding of speech and the ability to read or write.
Definition
Aphasia is a language disorder, which affects the production or understanding of speech and the ability to read or write. The part of the brain that regulates language skills is generally located on the left side of the brain, disturbances in this part can cause aphasia.
People with aphasia often make mistakes in understanding and conveying a sentence. The choice of words that are arranged and conveyed is often not in accordance with what is intended.
Reason
Aphasia is most often caused by disorders of the part of the brain that regulates language and speech. In most people, this part is located on the left side of the brain.
Aphasia is most often caused by a stroke. However, any type of damage to the brain can cause aphasia. For example, trauma to the brain, tumors in the brain, and other brain disorders that worsen over time.
Diagnosis
To determine the diagnosis of aphasia requires a thorough evaluation by a doctor. An examination can be conducted to assess the ability to understand words, questions, and stories; mention words and sentences; write and read; convey ideas in other ways if there is difficulty speaking (eg with gestures, etc.).
The presence of damage to the brain can be further examined with supporting examinations, for example through a CT – scan or MRI.
According To Doctor O’Donovan Doctor explains APHASIA – definition, symptoms, causes, and investigations.
Symptoms
There are several types of aphasia with different symptoms, namely:
- global aphasia: is the most severe type of aphasia. A person with global aphasia can only produce a few words that can be understood and can not or only understand a little when spoken to. People with aphasia are unable to read or write.
- Broca’s aphasia ( non-fluent aphasia ): in this form of aphasia, speech is very limited and usually the patient’s language delivery uses short words (usually less than four words).
The vocabulary of people with Broca’s aphasia is very limited. Patients generally can understand the words that are conveyed to them quite well and are able to read but are limited in writing.
- mixed non-fluent aphasia: in this aphasia, the sufferer has difficulty pronouncing words and only a few words are spoken, similar to the state of severe Broca’s aphasia.
The difference is, the sufferer has difficulty understanding the words that are conveyed to him. The ability to read and write is also very limited, similar to elementary school children.
- Wernicke’s aphasia: in this aphasia, the production of words does not experience problems while the ability to understand the spoken word is impaired. As a result, sufferers generally speak using many words creating long, and often meaningless sentences.
- anomic aphasia: a person with this aphasia will have difficulty finding the words needed to convey his point, often these words are nouns or adjectives.
When speaking, the sufferer will use too many words, even though they are grammatically correct. Comprehension of words is generally not a problem.
- Progressive primary aphasia: is a neurological syndrome in which language skills are slowly and progressively impaired. This situation is caused by neurodegenerative problems, such as Alzheimer’s disease.
In this case, there is damage to the brain tissue that functions for language skills. Although it begins with language problems, at an advanced stage other problems can arise, such as memory loss.
- other types: including various types of aphasia that do not fully fall into the categories described above. There may be a combination of several types of aphasia.
Treatment
The outcome of aphasia treatment is often influenced by the cause of the brain damage that causes aphasia, the area of the brain that was damaged and its extent, as well as the age and level of health of the person with aphasia.
Generally, it is recommended to do talk therapy to help aphasia. This therapy aims to help a person use the remaining language skills, restore language skills as much as possible, and learn other ways to communicate (eg with pictures, pointing, using electronic equipment, and so on).