Aphasia

What Is Aphasia?
Aphasia (ah-Fa-ze-ah) is a language disorder that affects a person’s ability to talk, understand
speech, read and/or write. Aphasia usually results from a stroke or other brain injury. A person
with aphasia may demonstrate some of the following characteristics:

• Difficulty talking, understanding speech, reading, and/or writing.

• The inability to control what is said, the use of profanities, and/or made-up words.
• Difficulty with symbols (drawing, using gestures, math problems, recognizing faces,
objects, and/or pictures).
• Preservation (the inappropriate repetition of words, phrases or activities).
• Visual disturbances (failure to see and/or attend to one side).
• Muscular weakness and/or discoordination, making speech difficult to understand
(known as “dysarthria”).
• Verbal Apraxia: difficulty with planning and sequencing movements for speech not
related to muscle weakness. People may be able to produce automatic speech such as
“hello” and “thank you.” Longer words are usually more difficult.

What Causes Aphasia?

Causes of Aphasia are neurological (related to changes in the brain).

Aphasia is caused by damage to certain areas of the brain. Usually people with aphasia have
damage to the left side of the brain and also have varying degrees of weakness on the right side
of their body. Aphasia ranges in severity from mild word-finding problems to the inability to
speak and/or understand. It is important to realize that not all people who suffer from strokes or
other brain injury have aphasia.

How To Help a Person With Aphasia?

Since communication is an activity that involves at least two people, there are ways that the
conversational partner can ease communication for a person with aphasia. A Speech
Pathologist will work with the person with aphasia and their family to teach these strategies and
techniques. Here are some tips:

• Communicate in a calm, quiet atmosphere (turn off the TV, close the door).
• Speak clearly and slowly, but naturally (a person with aphasia does not lose the ability to
hear or think, rather they have difficulty processing or producing language).
• Write down the key words you say or draw pictures as you talk.
• Talk to the person as an adult, and include them in the conversation- Never talk for the
person, rather assist them in getting their message across.
• Give the person time to understand and reply (remind them “take your time”).
• If the person uses incorrect words (“mother” instead of “daughter”) or made up works
(“niskha” instead of “no”) try to understand their intent based on the conversation and
body language.
1120 15th Street, Augusta, Georgia 30912 706-721-CARE mcghealth.org

Revised on 7/22/2008
• Use “yes/no” questions. For example, “Was the doctor here today?” instead of “What
happened today?”
• Provide the person with a written yes/no so they can point to the intended word
(sometimes a person with aphasia can say yes and mean no, or vice versa).
• Encourage the use of gestures, pointing, head shaking, imitating the use of an object
they want or need, and/or drawing a picture (if the person is having trouble getting a
word out, encourage them to do one of the above).
• If the patient has trouble getting words out in conversation encourage them to “describe
it” or “say it another way”.
• Approach and speak to the person from their stronger side (usually the left).
• Keep communication short and simple, and accompany it with gestures and facial
expressions.
• Performance may be inconsistent. Do not scold or tease the person when they cannot
perform a task that they have done before.
• Do not try to sympathize with false hope. For example, “You’ll be all right, you’ll be back
to work in no time,” instead use expressions such as “I know this must be hard for you. I
know you are having trouble getting your words out.”
• Learn more by asking your Speech Language Pathologist for more information.

1120 15th Street, Augusta, Georgia 30912 706-721-CARE mcghealth.org

Revised on 7/22/2008