Demystifying Aphasia

Communication is a critical aspect of our lives. We use words to communicate our emotions, instructions, thoughts, and ideas. To do this, we use several parts of our bodies, including our brains, nerves, vocal cords, mouth, tongue, and jaw.

When any of these parts are affected, your ability to form, process, or say words may be affected. However, this is often more significant when your brain is affected, congenitally or through a brain injury. A congenital anomaly or brain injury can cause several speech disorders including aphasia.

Key Takeaways:
Aphasia is a language disorder that temporarily or permanently affects your ability to process or form words when certain parts of your brain are injured. Depending on the severity of aphasia, there may also be reading and writing difficulties.

Aphasia appears in different forms, depending on which parts of the brain are affected. The three most common types are: Broca’s Aphasia, Wernicke’s Aphasia, and Global Aphasia.

There are several symptoms of aphasia. Some of the common symptoms of aphasia you may experience include:

• Problems understanding speech or other people’s conversations
• Struggling to repeat words or sentences
• Speaking incomplete or broken sentences – leaving out connecting words like “is.”
• Difficulty writing
• Difficulty remembering common words such as names of objects or animals.
• Saying long and incomprehensible sentences
• Making up words or adding irrelevant words to sentences.