Aphasia

Stroke symptoms may develop gradually or occur suddenly. Recognizing the signs and taking immediate action can make the difference between life and death for someone you love.  The sooner the medical intervention, the lower the risks of developing serious brain damage. There are 3 main signs to watch out for:

If someone is experiencing the 3 above symptoms, it is urgent to call an emergency line or take him/her to the hospital immediately.

Aphasia is caused by damage to the language-dominant side of the brain, usually the left side, and may occur suddenly, such as after:

It may also develop more slowly, as the result of: 

Aphasia is more common in middle-aged and older people but it can happen to anyone, regardless of age. In the United States, around 1 million people are living with aphasia. Furthermore, studies have found no significant differences in the incidence of aphasia in men and women.

Recovery time from Aphasia depends on many factors, such as:

Because of these factors, the recovery degree and speed is different from one person to another. 

Most patients with poststroke aphasia improve to some extent. Most improvement occurs within the first few months and plateaus after one year.

If a stroke is the original cause of aphasia, language abilities could return to normal within hours or days, in some cases. However, if the symptoms of aphasia last longer than two or three months after a stroke, a complete recovery becomes unlikely. 

It is also important to note that improvement is a slow process that typically involves both helping the individual and family understand the nature of aphasia and learning compensatory strategies for communicating. Some patients continue to improve over a period of years and even decades.

Since most jobs require speech, language and communication skills, patients with aphasia can find their previous jobs challenging and might not be able to work efficiently or meet the job’s requirements. Patients with severe aphasia will most likely have to quit their jobs. Patients with mild or even moderate aphasia might be able to return to their jobs depending on their recovery.  This decision can be very frustrating for the patient and his/her family. The speech and language therapist can offer support in this area by balancing hope and reality.

A person with aphasia may have difficulty retrieving words and names, but the person’s intelligence is basically intact. Aphasia is not like Alzheimer’s disease; for people with aphasia it is the ability to access ideas and thoughts through language – not the ideas and thoughts themselves- that is disrupted.                                                                                                                              

But because people with aphasia have difficulty communicating, it is often confused with other conditions.

Speech language therapy aims at helping the patient regain his communication abilities, and this requires significant one-on-one repetitive and regular therapy.

Typically the measurable progress can be made in the months immediately after a stroke, however it is possible for people to make advances even years after their episode. 

For people with aphasia, speech and language therapy aims to: 

After determining initial deficits, the speech and language therapist will begin to coach patients in pronouncing basic word sounds and to teach them ways to communicate nonverbally by pointing to pictures or words, for example.

Moreover, Speech Therapists rely on an assortment of techniques to revive speaking skills. Music, for example, has proved to be an effective means for people to remember words. Some aphasia patients can barely speak but they can sing entire songs. 

People with aphasia might feel isolated and burdensome. They might experience frustration, anxiety and even depression. 

Therefore, family involvement is a very important element of the aphasia treatment because it teaches you the best way to communicate with your loved one in an efficient way. Therefore, we encourage you to: