Aphasia is the inability or impairment to comprehend or formulate language because of damage to specific regions of the brain. Stroke or traumatic brain injury due to accidents are common causes of aphasia and subsequent language and speech impairment. Aphasia can vary in severity, from mild speech impairment to the total inability to communicate or understand. Symptoms include the inability to remember object names, read, or put words together into coherent sentences. The person's intelligence is unaffected. Other causes of aphasia include neurological or degenerative disorders, herpesviral encephalitis, and brain tumors. In acute aphasia resulting from head injury or stroke the symptoms appear rapidly, while in disease-related aphasia symptoms (primary progressive aphasia) often grow in severity over time. Aphasias can be classified as fluent, when the person can speak fluently but content may be disrupted, or non-fluent, where speech is very laborious and halting.
Symptoms of aphasia include:
- Inability to understand language
- Difficulty pronouncing words
- Inability to speak fluidly and spontaneously
- Inability to form words or sentences
- Difficulty naming objects (anomia)
- Poor enunciation
- Inability to repeat a phrase
- Repetition of a syllable, word, or phrase
- Agrammatism (inability to speak with correct grammar)
- Dysprosody (disruptions in speech inflexion and rhythm)
- Inability to form complete sentences
- Inability to read or write
- Inability to follow or understand simple verbal requests
Speech-language pathologists treat aphasia using a variety of techniques. There is no universal treatment for aphasia because every person may be affected differently and have different causes for the condition and unique combinations of symptoms. Treatment often involves repetition of task-specific speech and communication skills that result in functional improvement of daily tasks and improved communication with others. More frequent and intensive aphasia treatment has been shown to result in better overall improvement than slower therapy of longer duration. Recovery often depends on the individual's age, health, motivation to improve, education level, and physical dexterity (handedness). Improvement in speech and communication can result in dramatic quality-of-life improvements because communication is essential to our relationships, work, and day-to-day functioning.