You may have never heard of aphasia, but the brain disorder is “more common than Parkinson’s Disease, cerebral palsy or muscular dystrophy,” and affects some 2 million Americans.
March 31, 2022 at 9:02 a.m.
People with aphasia can have problems finding words, use words out of order, speak in a choppy, halting manner or use short fragments of speech. They can even make up nonsense words and sprinkle those into their speech and writing,Written communications can be full of grammatical errors and run-on sentences. A person with aphasia can also have problems with accurately copying letters and words, ASHA said.
Understanding others can also be impacted. People with aphasia may not understand spoken or written sentences or need extra time to absorb and understand what is being said or what they are reading. They may lose their ability to recognize words by sight or to sound out written words. It can be difficult for people with aphasia to follow a fast talker, or understand complex sentences and concepts, ASHA said.
How aphasia impacts a person can differ, based on the extent and site of damage in the brain. Some people only lose their abilities to find or repeat words and phrases, but are still able to speak and be understood. That’s calledCaused by damage to the language centers of the brain, aphasia is often the result of a traumatic brain injury, an infection or tumor in the brain, or a degenerative brain disease such as dementia, according to ASHA.
However, stroke is by far the biggest cause of the condition. Between 25% and 40% of stroke survivors acquire aphasia, according to the National Aphasia Association, with the elderly at highest risk.
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