Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Imagine you're in a foreign country - learning the language is incredibly hard, if not impossible. No one understands understand a hat you're saying. !ou can't
gesture # you $ust hope the other person understands hat you're trying to get across. No you may be in a position to understand aphasia # hat a person ith aphasia goes through e%eryday.
this is
It is caused by in$ury to the brain, often due to stro&e. Aphasia affects the production or comprehension of speech, %erbal or 'eople "hose ritten. ith the orld.
alienated from e%eryone. "he orst part is intelligence is not affected. 'eople thin&
as clearly as they e%er did. "hey simply can't communicate. ("here are patients ho can say something that sounds
li&e a sentence, but it's $ust garbage,( said speech language pathologist 'aul )ao, *ashington, +.,. (It's a
disability that is not understood because these people cannot communicate for themsel%es. Aphasia affects about one million people in the -nited .tates, according to the National Aphasia Association. .tro&e is the most common cause. Aphasia affects e%eryone differently -some may be able to spea& but can't understand others, the re%erse is true. (*hat ma&es it %ery difficult in this field is that no t o brain in$uries are the same # so no t o aphasias are the same,( said +r. .te%en .mall, -ni%ersity of ,hicago. "here are three ma$or types of aphasia0
1roca's aphasia # the person2s speech is se%erly limited. "hese people spea& in short, meaningful phrases - usually fe er than four less. A person ith 1roca's aphasia may say, (*al& dog( ill ta&e the dog for a al&,( or (!ou al&ed out of al&,( or ("he dog ords. "hey are able to understand the speech of others, more or
*ernic&e's aphasia- the person2s speech contains long sentences e3tra ith no meaning # there may also be ords. 'eople ith this type of ords or ne
aphasia usually ha%e difficulty understanding speech. "hey may also be una are of their mista&es. An e3ample of *ernic&e's aphasia is (!ou &no smoodle pin&ered and that I and ta&e care of him li&e you ("he dog needs to go out so I al&.(
that
ant to get him round ant before,( meaning, ill ta&e him for a
4lobal aphasia- these people ha%e se%ere communication difficulties # they may be %ery limited in their ability to spea& or comprehend.
"reatment for aphasia up until no speech or learn their speech. 7ne %ery important )ao said.
mainly to speech therapy - this helps people re-learn ays to get around 5the roadbloc&s6 in
(Non-%erbal communication is often better in these people,( he said. (It's hat you'd do in Italy. !ou'd use or& ith aphasia patients gestures to communicate things - li&e you need something to drin&6. )ao often begins his by creating clear (yes( and (no( signals # this is the most essential basic form of communication. (If it's not the nodding up and do n, it's the thumbs-up or thumbsdo n,( )ao said.
ay to impro%e the
benefits of speech therapy, .mall said. 5*e need to change the brain, and then ha%e the speech pathologist help change the brain in the right Ne ay.(
8ost important is ma&ing sure the aphasia patient doesn't end up being ignored because of the disability. 9e spo&e of a oman ho as about to ha%e surgery - her doctors oman ignored her as they discussed it. .mall as&ed the directly if she up. ('eople ho ha%e aphasia need to be included in life,( he ith them. 1ut