More Than Our Story

Aphasia

Table of Contents

Introduction

Aphasia is a language disorder caused by damage to the regions of the brain that control language expression and comprehension. As a result, aphasia can impact your speech, your writing and the way you understand both spoken and written language. Understandably, people with aphasia often struggle with their condition, getting frustrated at their inability to articulate and interact with others. Aphasia is a condition very close to me as my speech was greatly impacted following my brain surgery. Through working with speech language pathologists and healing post surgery, my most significant remaining aphasia symptom is word-finding, which becomes exacerbated when I’m tired or under stress. I wanted to write this article to share what I have learned and to shed some light on this relatively unknown condition. Through this, I hope to correct some of the misconceptions people have, share some signs to be aware of, and present some tactics to use when communicating with people suffering from aphasia.

Causes

Aphasia usually occurs suddenly after a stroke or brain injury. It can also develop gradually, from a slow-growing brain tumor, a degenerative disease, or an infection in the brain. Several regions of the brain are responsible for language comprehension, the severity of aphasia depends on the cause and degree of damage. Language resides in the dominant hemisphere of the brain (typically opposite to your dominant hand). If one of the language centers of the brain is injured but the other regions remain healthy, only some language functions will be affected.

Symptoms

Aphasia is a symptom of another condition, such as a stroke, brain tumor, or brain injury. There are many syndromes of aphasia, each with their unique symptoms and complications, but some general signs can include:

  • Struggling to find the right word.
  • Speaking in short or incomplete sentences.
  • Trouble speaking or writing clearly or coherently.
  • Trouble understanding speech or written words.
  • Trouble remembering object names.
  • Substituting one word for another, or one sound for another.

Complications

Because communication is so important in our daily lives, aphasia can lead to complications with work, family, friends, and daily activities. It can also lead to anger, embarrassment and alienation, and even cause people with aphasia to lose interest in their previous hobbies, furthering their feelings of isolation. Additionally, other conditions may present in tandem, such as difficulty moving around, loss/reduction of control over their dominant side, and problems with memory and thinking. Given the myriad complications to which aphasia can give rise, better understanding the condition can go a long way towards reducing misconception and stigmas.

Treatment

Treatment usually starts with addressing the underlying cause of the aphasia. Following brain injuries, the brain is often able to rewire itself, through a process known as neuroplasticity, effectively finding new ways to perform previous executed tasks. In this way, people with aphasia often see great improvements in the first few months. When aphasia remains beyond this initial recovery period, speech language therapy becomes the main tool used to help people improve their ability to communicate. Not only by restoring their ability to speak, but through teaching coping strategies to help them communicate using all the tools available at their disposal, from hand gestures to body language.

Factors that can influence the level of improvement include the underlying cause of the aphasia, the language centres of the brain damaged, and what extent, as well as the age and overall health of the patient.

Friends and family play a vital role in rehabilitating people with aphasia, especially with rebuilding confidence, and breaking down barriers to communicating with loved ones.

Coping

If you have been diagnosed with aphasia or another speech deficit, here are some coping strategies you can employ to help improve your communication with others:

  • Keep learning about aphasia, find a support group, work with a speech therapist.
  • Go easy on yourself, practice acceptance.
  • Let people know you have aphasia. Carry a card explaining what it is, and how they can help.
  • Ask people to speak slowly as needed.
  • Talking is not the only way we communicate. Use sign language, point at objects, use gestures. Carry paper and a pencil, use drawings and diagrams as shortcuts. Carry an electronic speech device.
  • Use circumlocution – talking around an idea to give enough detail. If “apple” evades you, instead say a juicy, red fruit that makes a delicious pie.
  • Keep socially engaged and practicing.
People with aphasia often use the above coping mechanisms to minimize the frustration they feel, and to ensure clear communication. Familiarize yourself with these strategies so you can better recognize people with aphasia, and respond appropriately.

Tips For Interacting With People With Aphasia

The follow tactics can be used when communicating with someone that has aphasia:

  • Be patient, and show respect.
  • Speak slowly and simply.
  • Give them adequate time to respond, don’t interrupt.
  • Minimize background noises and distractions, keep conversations one-on-one.
  • Look for signs of comprehension.
  • Involve the person with aphasia in conversations as much as possible.

Test Your Aphasia IQ

Answer the following true/false statements for yourself and test your aphasia IQ:

Aphasia affects intelligence.
False: Aphasia is related to language; it has nothing to do with intelligence.

Aphasia is very rare.
False: Aphasia affects millions of people all around the world.

Aphasia is the result of a stroke.
False: Aphasia can be results of a traumatic injury like stroke or brain injury or a degenerative disease.

Aphasia is not a well known condition.
True: A 2016 National Aphasia Association survey found that 84.5% of people have never heard the term “Aphasia.”

Aphasia is permanent.
False: Some people can continue to improve with continued speech therapy and practice.

Aphasia can present with other conditions.
True: Depending on the underlying causal condition, the brain damage received and how extensive it is, aphasia can present with weakness or paralysis, as well as problems with memory and thinking.

Aphasia is the same for everyone.
False: There are numerous aphasia syndromes, each with their own symptoms and complications.

Aphasia only affects old people.
False: While strokes are a major cause of aphasia, and strokes predominantly affect older people, it is untrue that aphasia only affects old people. Brain tumors, brain injuries and infections of the brain can happen to anyone at any age.

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Picture of Daniel

Daniel

Daniel is an extremely curious person, a wealth of random knowledge and facts. Extremely passionate about a vast array of interests ranging from health to history, science to athletics, everything culinary and the list goes on. Trust us, you would want to be on his team for Trivial Pursuit. Daniel is also years into his battle with brain cancer. He experienced a seizure while on a Zoom call at work in late 2020 and quite literally, his life changed within minutes. After his operation he started to talk about his story but had always known it was more than just him. From then, More Than Our Story became a PROJECT that has evolved into the starting point it is today.

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