What is Aphasia?
Aphasia is a communication disorder that affects a person’s ability to understand and use language. Aphasia can occur as a result of damage to the brain, most commonly from a stroke, traumatic brain injury, or neurodegenerative disease. The severity of aphasia can range from mild difficulty with speaking and understanding language to complete loss of language ability.
It is typical for people experiencing aphasia to have a combination of difficulties with their receptive language and their expressive language, although the severity of either can vary. Sometimes people can struggle more with their word finding (expressive language) whilst having fewer difficulties with their comprehension (receptive language), or vice-versa. Receptive aphasia is difficulty understanding spoken or written language, while expressive aphasia is difficulty communicating thoughts through speech or writing.
Receptive aphasia is characterised by an inability to comprehend language. This can range from having trouble understanding simple words to being unable to make sense of more complex sentences. People with receptive aphasia may also have difficulty following a conversation or comprehending written material.
Expressive aphasia, on the other hand, is characterised by difficulty communicating one’s thoughts and ideas through speech or writing. This can range from being unable to find the right words to being completely unable to speak and people may also have trouble with spelling (writing or typing).
Diagnosis of aphasia, and ascertaining the impact caused to a person’s expressive and receptive language, typically involves a language assessment with a Speech and Language Therapist. This will include assessments of a person’s ability to understand spoken and written language, as well as their ability to produce speech and writing.
The goal of treatment is to help the individual regain as much language function as possible and to improve their ability to communicate with others. In some cases, treatment may also involve using alternative forms of communication, such as assistive technology or other forms of total communication (I will discuss total communication more in a follow-up blog).
It is important to note that while receptive and expressive aphasia can have a significant impact on a person’s ability to communicate, many people are able to make significant improvements with treatment and support. The timing of therapy post-brain injury is also an important consideration – intensive therapy as soon as practically possible following a brain injury is generally seen as most beneficial to optimise recovery.