What is aphasia and how to treat it? [WE EXPLAIN]

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Aphasia is the loss of speech ability in a person who has not had problems with it so far. In a healthy person, there may also suddenly be a problem with writing or reading, and then we also deal with aphasia. Aphasia itself is not a disease entity, but a group of symptoms that are caused by brain damage. Unfortunately, it can occur suddenly or be acquired. Aphasia can take various forms, which differ in symptoms, diagnosis and treatment methods.

Aphasia – What is it?

Aphasia is a group of symptoms caused by partial or complete damage to the brain structures. It also occurs as a disorder of the mechanisms responsible for speech functions in people who have already mastered this activity. The term aphasia denotes the loss of these abilities, and dysphasia refers to the impaired speech in people who continue to exhibit this activity. In Poland, the term dysphasia mainly refers to speech disorders in children, simply called aphasia in children.

Aphasia is caused by damage to the central nervous system. Most often as a result of a craniocerebral trauma, expanded process or stroke. Based on the type of aphasia, the lesion can be located in the brain. Quite often the cause of aphasia is the destruction of nerve tissue in the left hemisphere of the brain, but it can also arise as a result of changes in subcortical structures or in nerve fibers located in the right hemisphere.

Also check: Infections of the central nervous system

Aphasia – classification

There are three centers that regulate speech activities in the cerebral cortex:

1. Broka’s motor speech center (the so-called word movement imagination center),
2. Wernicke’s auditory speech center (word auditory imagination center),
3. other cortical centers “stimulating” the activity of the speech centers.

The cerebral regulation of speech activity is based on the interaction of centers and their connections, i.e. connections between centers and centers with the lower levels of the system (subcortical structures). Different syndromes of aphatic disorders result from differently localized lesions, i.e. damage to the centers themselves or their connections.

At present, there are various classifications of aphasia developed by specialists in the field of medical sciences, especially sciences related to speech disorders. Currently, the division of aphasia is based on two key factors: the symptoms in the sphere of speech impression and expression, and the extent of damage to the brain structures specific to speech activities. So we distinguish, among others:

1. motor aphasia,
2. sensory aphasia,
3. conduction aphasia,
4. anomic aphasia,
5. global aphasia.

See: What is neuropsychology?

Motor aphasia – symptoms

Motor aphasia also known as Broc’s aphasia, motor and expressive. This type of aphasia is characterized by disorders of all forms of expressive speech – repetition, spontaneous speech, naming aloud. Motor aphasia is a form of aphasia in which the person knows what he wants to say but is unable to utter words or sentences.

This aphasia is also referred to as fluent aphasia and can range from mild to severe in severity. People with motor aphasia are usually aware of their communication difficulties.

Motor aphasia is caused by damage to the Brock area in the left hemisphere of the brain, named after French scientist Paul Broc.

Motor aphasia is often described as having the words “on the tip of the tongue.” This is called disfluid aphasia because speech is difficult and has stops. Another characteristic is that when sentences are created, they often have incorrect syntax or word order and grammar.

Understanding or reading and listening are less affected than speech and written statements. Simple sentences are the easiest to understand. For example, “John likes ice cream” is easier to understand than “Ice cream is food John likes.” People with motor aphasia are often able to understand most of what is said to them, but have difficulty responding.

People with motor aphasia may also experience less obvious communication disorders. This can include distortions of yes / no discrimination – saying yes when they really mean no. Using correct pronouns can also be difficult, and a person can use “he” to refer to a woman. Speech therapy can be of great help to people with motor aphasia.

Characteristics of motor aphasia:

1. speech can be very difficult and limited to a few words,
2. words such as prepositions, articles, and conjunctions are particularly difficult and are often overlooked
3. sentences can be disjointed and / or mixed up,
4. there may be word substitutions, for example “pen” for “pencil” or “week” for “month”,
5. speech can be laborious and stopping,
6. writing skills often reflect speech.

Also read: Singing helps to heal speech disorders

Sensory aphasia – symptoms

Sensory aphasia is also referred to as Wernicke’s aphasia, sensory, receptive. This aphasia is dominated by disturbances in understanding heard utterances caused by the inability to differentiate and identify speech sounds. Wernicke’s aphasia is characterized by fluent speech that makes no sense. Wernicke’s aphasia is sometimes called “word salad” because speech usually consists of random words and phrases stacked together.

Wernicke’s aphasia is the result of damage to an area of ​​Wernicke’s brain. Wernicke’s area is the part of the brain that is responsible for understanding language. It usually occurs in the left hemisphere of the brain. Both the aphasia and the brain area are named after Carl Wernicke, a German physician who linked these traits to a specific area of ​​the brain.

People with Wernicke’s aphasia often experience less physical limitations as a result of a stroke. While this is beneficial, it also means that people with this type of aphasia often don’t look like stroke survivors or people with disabilities. For this reason, Wernicke’s aphasia can be confused with mental health issues. A person with Wernicke’s aphasia is often unaware of their mistakes, and develops difficulties in understanding.

Characteristics of Wernicke’s aphasia:

1. fluent speech with typical prosody and intonation,
2. speech does not make sense, words do not form a coherent thought,
3. speech often contains neologisms or made up words that have no meaning,
4. weakness with repeating words / phrases,
5. impaired understanding of the spoken language,
6. reading comprehension and writing are disturbed,
7. most people with Wernicke’s aphasia are unaware of their mistakes.

Also read: Is Stroke Possible In Children?

Conduction aphasia – symptoms

Conduction aphasia, also known as conduction, central, afferent motor aphasia. Conduction aphasia is a type of aphasia where the main disability is the inability to repeat words or phrases. Other linguistic areas are less (or not at all) impaired. It is also known as associative aphasia.

A person with conductive aphasia can usually read, write, speak, and understand spoken messages. Some people have mild oral language impairments such as difficulty finding words or paraphases (replacing words and sounds).

However, a person with conductive aphasia may not be able to repeat words, phrases, or sentences. A person with mild conductive aphasia may be able to repeat words and short phrases, but has difficulty with long or complex sentences.

In contrast, people with severe conductive aphasia may not be able to repeat short phrases or even single words. People with this type of condition are usually aware of their mistakes, but have difficulty correcting them.

Conductive aphasia is considered a mild form of aphasia and is relatively rare.

Characteristics of conductive aphasia:

1. understanding spoken messages.
2. the ability to read, write and speak,
3. difficulty finding words
4. using word and sound substitution
5. difficulty repeating words, phrases or sentences.

Read: Kindergarten can speed up the development of speech in children

Anomic aphasia – symptoms

Anomic aphasia is one of the milder forms of aphasia. The term refers to people who have a persistent inability to come up with words that describe exactly what they want to talk about, especially meaningful nouns and verbs. Their speech is fluent and grammatically correct, but is full of obscure words (such as “thing”) and overviews (trying to describe the word they are trying to find).

It is common to feel that the word is on the tip of the tongue, which causes their speech to contain many expressions of frustration. People with anomic aphasia have a good understanding of speech and can repeat words and sentences. In most cases, they can read properly. Finding words is as evident in writing as it is in speech.

Global aphasia – symptoms

Global aphasia is the most severe form of aphasia and is used in patients who can pronounce few recognizable words and have little or no understanding and no spoken language. People with this type of aphasia cannot read or write. As with other milder forms of aphasia, individuals may have fully preserved intellectual and cognitive abilities unrelated to language and speech.

Global aphasia is caused by trauma to many areas of the brain that process language, including areas known as the Wernicke and Brocki regions. These areas of the brain are especially important for understanding spoken language, accessing vocabulary, using grammar, and creating words and sentences.

Global aphasia can often be seen immediately after a stroke or brain injury. Symptoms may resolve quickly in the first few months after a stroke, if the damage is not too extensive. However, with greater brain damage, severe and permanent disability can develop.

See: What are the types of disability?

Aphasia in children – how to recognize?

Often parents worry that when a child is reticent or does not pronounce all words correctly, he or she has aphasia. However, aphasia in children is only spoken of when a 2-3-year-old child does not make any progress in speech, or when he or she does not understand or understand but cannot respond.

However, these symptoms may not be aphasia, they may be the result of other disorders, or be caused by a trauma that prevents the child from speaking or learning new words.

Symptoms of aphasia in children include:

1. lack of speech development,
2. not understanding the meaning of words despite proper hearing,
3. lack of emotional disturbances and cognitive impairment,
4. problem with pronouncing words spontaneously and imitatively,
5. distorting words,
6. problem with pronouncing two-syllable and longer words,
7. poor vocabulary,
8. breaking down words into syllables.

Treatment and prognosis in aphasia

In the case of acquired aphasia, e.g. in patients after a stroke, speech therapy is required in addition to pharmacological treatment. In most patients, it gives very good results and the patient improves the manner of pronunciation or learns the words and their meaning anew. To improve the quality of the effectiveness of speech therapy classes, you can use the Tri-Gym Inhalation-Exhalation Trainer for lung training during therapy, which you can buy on Medonet Market at a promotional price.

It also happens that the disorders regress spontaneously within 1-3 months of their onset, especially when they were acquired as a result of a stroke.

If aphasia is suspected in a child, early therapy with a speech therapist, who, after assessing the child’s speech and familiarizing himself with his skills, will adjust the appropriate type of learning so that the child can begin to speak properly and communicate with others.