Communication is one of the most crucial skills that enables humans to connect with others and share their thoughts, opinions, and feelings. However, a mental disorder referred to as aphasia can affect one’s ability to communicate. It can occur after a stroke or brain injury and can affect one’s ability to comprehend and respond to the language.
Aphasia can cause difficulty with speaking, reading, writing and establishing communication with others. Thus, this detrimental disorder can interfere with your day-to-day life, thereby hampering the quality of life. Speech-language pathologists can help people with the therapeutical interventions. This article discusses some crucial aspects of aphasia, and role of speech therapy in its treatment.
What is Aphasia, and How Can We Determine It?
In simplest words, aphasia can be defined as a lost ability to speak, comprehend language, read, and write. It occurs when the areas of the brain responsible for language get damaged due to a stroke or injury. There are different types of aphasia with distinct symptoms. The specific set of symptoms is based on the affected brain area. The common types are:
Broca’s Aphasia
Broca’s aphasia is related to the difficulty with the speech. Individuals with this condition often speak incomplete and choppy sentences and struggle with finding the right words. Slow speech and inappropriate sentence formation are some of the common signs of this kind. Besides, people also find it difficult to produce meaningful words.
Wernicke’s Aphasia
Wernicke’s aphasia is the intermediate form of aphasia disorder, wherein one can speak fluently but the speech is jumbled or hard to comprehend. However, the individuals are not aware of their flawed speech. Adults with Aphasia speak fast, but fail to add meaning to the sentence. They may also experience trouble in understanding the written or spoken language. Difficulty in naming objects is also one of its common symptoms.
Global Aphasia
Global aphasia is the most severe form of this disorder, wherein the person can’t speak at all. Even if they speak, their speech is really hard to understand. Besides, they are unable to comprehend the written or spoken language. They might speak a few words, but they are not meaningful.
The Most Common Causes Of Aphasia
Stroke or injury in the specific brain areas are some of the most apparent reasons behind this error. However, several other factors can also contribute to this brain disorder, which are:
- Brain infections.
- Severe brain injuries.
- Brain tumors.
- Progressive neurological disorders (Dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease, etc.)
- Autism spectrum disorder.
What Are Different Types Of Speech Therapy for Aphasia?
Speech therapy can play a pivotal role in treating the aphasia in kids and adults. Speech therapy can help restore language to the greatest possible extent, by reducing the language impairment. Besides, it also encourages and activity and participation of the individuals to improve their condition. Moreover, speech therapy offers alternative ways to support communication in kids and adults. The experts also ensure the role of the parents and family members in the treatment process.
Some common forms of speech therapies for aphasia are:
Constraint-Induced Language Therapy (CILT)
This speech therapy is based on the games to encourage spoken language, over gestures. It evokes an intentional bias among the patients to use spoken language. It also inhibits gestures in all contexts so that people can practice more and more spoken communication.
Melodic Intonation Therapy
This speech and language therapy for adults uses melody and rhythm to help individuals with their communication difficulties caused due to aphasia. It includes singing to improve the impaired language, incorporating the elements of speech – melody and rhythm. It facilitates the communication process by activating the undamaged area of the brain, useful in language processing.
Speech-Generating Devices
This form of treatment is used for the Global Aphasia for the patients with complete loss of the speaking ability. The device produces pre-recorded or computer-generated speech, enabling person to communicate by pressing buttons. It can help in both forms of aphasia, including receptive (difficulty in comprehending language) and expressive (trouble in making spoken communication).
How To Find A Speech-Language Pathologist For Aphasia?
Role of speech therapy for autism treatment is pivotal, and can also help individuals deal with the progressive neurological disorders causing aphasia. However, it is crucial to find the best speech therapist for aphasia in your vicinity. You need to be mindful about several things, such as location, budget, experience, communication style, and several others to ensure the best treatment.
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