April 14, 2022 | The recent news that actor Bruce Willis, the star of numerous action films like Die Hard and Armageddon, is retiring from the motion picture business due to being diagnosed with aphasia, has brought a lot of attention to the condition, which affects roughly two million people alone in the United States. A neurological disorder, aphasia is caused by damage to the portions of the brain that are responsible for language production or processing. It can make it hard for someone to read, write, and say what they mean to say. It may occur suddenly or progressively, depending on the cause. Although it is primarily seen in individuals who have suffered a stroke, particularly in older adults, aphasia can also result from a brain tumor, infection, inflammation, head injury, or dementia that affect language-associated regions of the brain. The type and severity of language dysfunction depends on the precise location and extent of the damaged brain tissue.

April 14, 2022 | About 180,000 people in the United States develop aphasia every year. The neurological condition can be so severe as to make communication with the patient almost impossible, or it can be very mild. It may affect mainly a single aspect of language use, such as the ability to retrieve the names of objects, or the ability to put words together into sentences, or the ability to read. There are several types of the condition, each with different symptoms. Non-fluent aphasia refers to someone who knows what they want to say, but they have trouble saying or writing what they mean. With fluent aphasia, a person may say words or sentences that don’t make sense and have difficulty understanding others as well. Global aphasia affects all aspects of language and is applied to patients who can produce few recognizable words and understand little or no spoken language. And with anomic aphasia, the patient will have some trouble using the correct word for objects, places, or events.

April 14, 2022 | Aphasia, which is caused by damage to one or more of the language areas of the brain, is usually first recognized by the physician and medical team who treats the person for his or her brain injury or disease. According to Dr. Dana Moser, director of UAMS’ Communications Sciences and Disorders program, most individuals will undergo an MRI or CT scan to confirm the presence of a brain damage and to identify its precise location. Typically, when aphasia is suspected, a physician will request a speech-language pathologist to test the person’s ability to understand and produce language, such as following commands, answering questions and carrying on a conversation. Dr. Moser says that if aphasia is present, the speech-language pathologist will perform a comprehensive examination of the person’s communication abilities. The person’s ability to speak, converse socially, understand language, and read and write are all assessed in detail.

April 14, 2022 | Following a stroke or brain injury, tremendous changes will occur in the brain. As a result, people with aphasia often see dramatic improvements in their communication skills in the first few months, even without treatment. In some instances, a person may recover completely without treatment. But in many cases, some aphasia remains following this initial recovery period. In these instances, speech-language therapy is used to help patients regain their ability to communicate. In addition, if a person’s aphasia is caused by a progressive neurological disease, their symptoms will get worse and likely begin to include other systems, such as cognition and memory. Aphasia therapy aims to improve a person’s ability to communicate by helping him or her to use their remaining language abilities and learn other ways of communicating, while group therapy offers the opportunity to use new communication skills in a small group setting.

April 14, 2022 | There are several ways you can help people with aphasia. It’s best to keep distractions and noise down, which may mean turning off the radio or TV and moving to a quieter room when trying to communicate with them. Talk to people who have aphasia in adult language. Do not make them feel as if they are children. Do not pretend to understand them if you do not. If a person with aphasia cannot understand you, do not shout. Unless the person also has a hearing problem, shouting will make you even harder to understand. It’s important to make eye contact when talking to the person. Always try to keep someone with aphasia involved in conversations. But do not push too hard for them to understand, since this may cause even more frustration. It’s also a good idea when leaving someone alone with a speech problem that they have an ID card that has information on how to contact family members and how to best communicate with that person.