Aphasia: Acquired Oral Language Disorder

In the world of psychology , communication disorders that affect oral language are known as  aphasias . When we speak of aphasia, we speak of a lesion in the brain areas of language, namely: Broca’s area, Wernicke’s area , or in both at the same time. Aphasia directly influences a person’s ability to use or understand words.

This communication disorder is diagnosed as long as there is an absence of perception , movement and thought disorders . This is an entity that never responds to psychogenic causes, diffuse injuries, or confusional states.

Causes of aphasia

Those who suffer from an acquired oral language disorder may have language alterations both at the expressive and receptive levels, sometimes one level predominates over the other.

Among the triggering causes of this disorder we can mention that brain lesions are the main cause of aphasias.

Age can also influence this disorder, since according to statistics, it is more common to see this type of disorder in older adults, particularly in those who have had a stroke.

Other factors that can cause an acquired oral language disorder are: brain infection or dementia – Alzheimer’s -, brain tumors, epilepsy or other neurological disorders.

Classification of aphasias

There are several types of aphasias; each type can cause impairment in different parts of the brain associated with language. This deterioration can range from mild to severe. The 5 most common types of aphasia include:

Aphasia in the fluent or expressive

Non-fluent or expressive aphasia is compromised Broca’s area, therefore the motor part of oral language. Those who suffer from expressive aphasia or Broca’s aphasia know what they want to convey, but have difficulty communicating it to others. The person suffering from expressive aphasia will not be able to communicate what they want, regardless of whether they try to express it orally in words or in writing.

Afasia fluente o receptiva :

Fluent or receptive aphasia is compromised Wernicke’s area, therefore the part of oral language comprehension. Receptive aphasia or Wernicke’s aphasia generates in the person incomprehension of what he is reading or listening, this means that, although a person can hear a voice or read what is written, he cannot understand the meaning of the message. Generally, people with receptive aphasia take language literally.

Global aphasia

Global aphasia occurs when there is a very extensive brain injury. This is the most serious type of aphasia and affects both poles of language. This type of aphasia can be seen after someone has a stroke. As with global aphasia it affects both brain poles, the person has difficulty speaking, writing and understanding oral or written words.

Anemic aphasia

People with anomic aphasia have a language disorder called anomine. This disorder brings with it the difficulty to find and use the correct words to speak and write, even to describe places and objects.

Conduction aphasia

This language disorder is found in the white matter that connects the Broca and Wernicke areas. This disorder seriously affects prosody, which is altered, and also affects the individual’s ability to repeat words.

Note: It should be noted that fluent means high flow of the language, while non-fluent is considered telegraphic language with a decreased flow (less than 10 words per minute), they are people who commonly speak little by little, cutting words many times.

Symptoms of aphasia

Among the most common symptoms we can find:

• Altered intonation of language (prosody)
• Comprehension problems
• Problems in repeating words (paraphasia)
• Word substitution
• They present neologisms (made up words)
• They have errors in the conjugation of verbs (parapragmatisms)
• They can present confusion
• They present logorrhea
• They regularly use fillers

How can aphasias be treated?

Aphasias are usually treated with reeducation -depending on the underlying cause and their severity-, assisted by a speech therapist or speech therapist (specialists in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of speech and language disorders).

The speech therapist will be responsible for creating a therapeutic program with language-based activities. At the beginning and at the end of the treatment provided by the speech therapist, an evaluation will be made to the patient that will indicate the patient’s evolution and the result of the treatment.

In cases where the patient presents a language disorder with a high degree of severity, which gets in the way of his daily life, the reeducation treatment can be complemented with a psychotherapy treatment to help the patient to cope in a healthy your condition.