{"id":9851,"date":"2023-06-05T06:00:38","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T12:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/summit-education.com\/blog\/?p=9851"},"modified":"2024-06-18T14:15:45","modified_gmt":"2024-06-18T20:15:45","slug":"aphasia-awareness-month-communication-challenges-and-effective-strategies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogcontent.summit-education.com\/blog\/general\/aphasia-awareness-month-communication-challenges-and-effective-strategies\/","title":{"rendered":"Aphasia Awareness Month: Communication Challenges and Effective Strategies"},"content":{"rendered":"

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.0.48″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.19.10″]<\/p>\n

Written By: Anysia Ensslen-Boggs, Ed.D., CCC-SLP<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
\n

\"\"<\/a>Aphasia is a communication disorder affecting over 2 million Americans. Aphasia is an acquired neurogenic language disorder resulting from an injury to the brain (usually a stroke). Aphasia may also result from head trauma, brain tumors, or infections. Aphasia can be very mild or can be so severe that communication with the patient is almost impossible. Aphasia may mainly affect a single aspect of language use, such as the ability to name objects, or the ability to put words together in sentences. In most cases, multiple aspects of communication are impaired making it difficult for functional communication to occur as it once did.<\/p>\n

Varying degrees of impairment may be present in these four primary areas:<\/strong><\/h5>\n
    \n
  • Spoken language expression<\/li>\n
  • Spoken language comprehension<\/li>\n
  • Written expression<\/li>\n
  • Reading comprehension<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    Impairments of spoken language expression may include:<\/strong><\/h5>\n
      \n
    • Having difficulty finding words (anomia<\/strong>)<\/li>\n
    • Speaking with effort<\/li>\n
    • Speaking only in single words (e.g., names of objects)<\/li>\n
    • Speaking in short, fragmented phrases<\/li>\n
    • Omitting smaller words like\u00a0the, of,<\/em>and\u00a0was<\/em>\u00a0(telegraphic speech<\/strong>)<\/li>\n
    • Putting words in the wrong order<\/li>\n
    • Making up words (jargon<\/strong>)<\/li>\n
    • Fluently stringing together nonsense words and real words, but leaving out or including an insufficient amount of relevant content (\u201cword salad\u201d<\/strong>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
      Impairments of spoken language comprehension may include:<\/strong><\/h5>\n
        \n
      • Having difficulty understanding spoken utterances<\/li>\n
      • Requiring extra time to understand spoken messages<\/li>\n
      • Providing unreliable answers to \u201cyes\/no\u201d questions<\/li>\n
      • Finding it very hard to follow fast speech (e.g., radio or television news)<\/li>\n
      • Misinterpreting subtleties of language (e.g., taking the literal meaning of figurative speech such as \u201cIt’s raining cats and dogs.\u201d)<\/li>\n
      • Lacking awareness of errors<\/li>\n
      • Inability to comprehend verbal feedback<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        Intervention from a speech-language pathologist is both restorative and compensatory in nature. The goal of restorative therapy is to improve and restore impaired function, while the goal of compensatory therapy is to teach the patient compensations to address those deficits that are not likely to be completely restored. Watch this brief video that illustrates some of the challenges people with Aphasia face and how it affects the brain:<\/strong><\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n<\/div>\n