Aphasia from deformities in the brain.
Disorder Psychology

Overview:

Our thinking ability completely depends on the language we are knowing, also the more words we will know the more sharply we will think. Any deformities with the language or speech part of the brain lead to a complex condition like aphasia.

What is Aphasia?

Aphasia is a language disorder that affects your ability to communicate, write and understand language, both verbal and written. Aphasia from defects in Broca’s area is most common. Broca’s area, present in the frontal lobe (in the left region) of the dominant hemisphere, which controls language and speech, has been damaged or affected by aphasia.

Types of Aphasia:

Aphasia from mild to severe range affect people in different ways, following are the types of it –
1) Broca’s aphasia (non-fluent aphasia) : Is when people find it difficult to find and say the right words to make a complete sentence, although they may know exactly what they want to say.
Characteristics of Broca’s aphasia –
– Difficulty in writing, but the ability to read and understand speech.
– Severely reduced speech, often limited to less than 4 or 5 words.
2) Wernicke’s aphasia/receptive aphasia (Fluent aphasia) : Is when someone talks with the use of long sentences, but what they say may not make sense to others. Probably they are knowing that what they are saying is wrong.
Characteristics of Wernicke’s aphasia –
– An inability to produce sentences.
– An inability to understand the meaning of spoken words.
– Also, intrusion of irrelevant words.
3) Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) : Is a condition where language capabilities become progressively and slowly worse.
Characteristics of PPA –
– Leads to a loss of ability to speak, write, read, and understanding what others are saying.
– Deterioration can happen gradually over years.
4) Anomic aphasia : Is when someone has trouble naming objects while writing and speaking.
Characteristics of Anomic aphasia –
– Failure to express the words they want to say.
– People often forget verbs, nouns, and pronouns.
– May use non-specific words while writing or speaking.
– They may know the function of the object but not be able to remember the name.

Symptoms of Aphasia:

Have a look at the common symptoms of aphasia –
• Speak in incomplete sentences.
• Use unrecognizable words while speaking or writing.
• Jumbled speech.
• Inability to understand what other people are saying.
• Trouble naming people, objects, events, or places.
• Difficulty in drawing or building things.
• Loss of ability to write.
• Social isolation.
• Persistent repetition of actions or words.

Aphasia Causes:

Following are the causes of it –
• Aphasia from brain stroke.
• Brain tumor.
• Head injury.
• Dementia.
• Infections of the brain tissues.

Aphasia can occur suddenly after any of the given causes.

Diagnosis of Aphasia:

Aphasia is usually self-diagnosable. In complicated cases, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) are recommended to diagnose the cause and identify the areas of the brain that are damaged. Your physician/speech-language pathologist performs a basic language test to suspect your condition.

Prevention:

When it comes to prevention, aphasia can’t be prevented but maintaining your blood pressure, having a healthy diet, keeping blood glucose and cholesterol under the limit, quitting alcohol and smoking, exercising regularly may help to prevent conditions like stroke, which is the major cause of aphasia.

When to see a doctor –

If a person frequently finds difficulty in speaking, like can’t complete a whole sentence with proper words, or find difficulty with word recall. All these may start after a stroke or any mentioned cause, see a doctor as soon as possible.

Treatment For Aphasia:

Proper treatment for aphasia isn’t available yet, some therapies like speech therapy, stroke rehabilitation, and group psychotherapy may help, but this condition can’t be cured. The treatment of aphasia is completely based on the ’cause’. Speech and language therapy is mostly used to treat patients with aphasia, conducting individualized programs is important.

” Not being able to speak is not the same as not having anything to say ” – Rosemary Crossley.

Subin Joshua
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Author: Hi there, my name is Subin Joshua, and I am a Medical student. I grew up in a family of teachers and know that being a social worker is my calling. My passion for helping others has been evident in my involvement in helping the poor and needy for the last three years. Through those experiences, I have learned to interact with a diverse group of people, which has increased my ability to relate to others.