Damage to areas of the brain that are responsible for speech can result in aphasia. What it is? This is a disease characterized by partial or complete loss of speech. As a rule, the disease is sudden in nature and occurs as a result of a head injury or stroke. However, in some cases, the disease can develop gradually, for example, against the background of infection, brain tumor, dementia.
With aphasia in humans, the ability to speak and understand speech is almost completely lost. In addition, a sick person is not able to read and write. Basically, this disease affects elderly people, but the development of aphasia in children is also possible.
Aphasia classification
Sensory aphasia. What it is? This is a disorder resulting from damage to the temporal lobe of the brain, usually the left. Also, this disease is called aphasia Wernicke. Patients with this disease can talk in long sentences that do not make sense, construct new words on their own and add them to sentences. Because of this, their speech is almost impossible to understand. Also, with Wernicke aphasia, it is difficult for a person to understand someone else's speech. Since the parts of the brain that control the movements are not damaged, the patient's behavior and movements are quite adequate.
Motor aphasia. What it is? This is a speech disorder that occurs due to damage to the frontal lobe of the brain. Another name is Broca aphasia. Since it is difficult to speak with aphasia sufferers, they are able to pronounce only simple, short sentences, skipping prepositions and some words. The frontal lobe of the brain partially regulates motility, so Broca's aphasia can often be accompanied by weakness of the right arm and leg or paralysis.
Symptoms of aphasia
A person with sensory aphasia fluently pronounces normal words, including meaningless phonemes in sentences, but without realizing their meaning. Patients with this disease realize that others cannot understand their speech.
People with motor aphasia are able to understand the speech of others relatively well. But there are difficulties with the pronunciation of words. Usually, writing and speech formation are disturbed, which creates difficulties in communication. Also, with Broca aphasia , an anomie (inability to correctly name objects) may be present.
Aphasia: treatment of the disease
Therapy of aphasia is primarily aimed at restoring a person's normal ability to communicate. The services of a professional speech therapist in the early stages of the disease give good results: the sooner therapy is started, the greater the chance of recovery.
One of the most important conditions for successful treatment is the direct participation of family members in it. Relatives of the patient with aphasia should adhere to the following recommendations:
talk in simple, short sentences;
Repeat, if necessary, important phrases;
communicate in a natural way, without focusing on the disease;
try not to correct the patient's speech;
talk with the patient as often as possible;
Do not rush, giving time to pronounce sentences.
From this article, you learned about a disease such as aphasia: what it is, what are the causes, symptoms and treatment methods.