Living with aphasia – Helping people to overcome communication problems
Many people working in social care will have heard the word ‘aphasia’. It’s something we come across here at Bluebird Care Clapham & Streatham, but it’s a term that isn’t always understood.
What is aphasia?
Aphasia’ is the term used to describe communication difficulties caused by damage to the areas of the brain responsible for processing and producing speech and language. In the past, aphasia described a total loss of language, with the term ‘dysphasia’ being used to indicate a partial loss but is now commonly used as an umbrella term for all such communication problems.
The most common cause of aphasia is a stroke (most often in the left side of the brain), but it can also occur as a result of other types of damage to the brain such as a brain tumour, brain injury and degenerative brain conditions like dementia. Although it can affect people of all ages, aphasia is most common in people over 65, as older people are more likely to have the health problems that cause the condition.
How does aphasia affect people?
It goes without saying that, as we are all unique, aphasia will affect every individual differently, although there are broad categories that describe the difficulties people often experience.
Aphasia can make it hard for people to:
Produce speech and make themselves understood – the person may speak in broken sentences of a few words (non-fluent aphasia) or speak fluently but the words may not be in the right order (fluent aphasia).
Understand what people are saying to them – some may experience the feeling that the other person is speaking in a foreign language, others may struggle to comprehend long or complex sentences.
Find the right words – they may use the wrong vocabulary, repeat words or struggle to recall or articulate words, particularly nouns and verbs.
Read – the person may not be able to read text altogether, others may be able to read some text but have trouble comprehending its meaning.
Write or type – forming/typing written words or coherent sentences may be difficult or impossible (but often reading and understanding speech is not affected).
A person who has problems speaking or finding the right words has ‘expressive aphasia’; someone who has trouble reading or understanding what someone is saying to them has ‘receptive aphasia’ and someone who has a combination of these problems has ‘mixed ‘or ‘global aphasia’. Unfortunately, these communication difficulties can often lead other people to assume the person has general cognitive impairment which is most often not the case. This makes aphasia a particularly frustrating condition to live with and can lead to anxiety, depression and withdrawing from interacting with others.
How can we help people with aphasia to communicate?
There are a range of treatments to help people who are living with aphasia, many of which will be determined by a speech and language therapist. With advances in technology, computer-based applications are increasingly being used to support people with their communication. However, in general terms, there are some simple ways in which we can all help people living with aphasia to understand us and communicate their feelings
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