Aphasia is a communication disorder that can affect speech (spoken or receptive), reading and/or writing. Aphasia is NOT a cognitive disorder. Aphasia is caused by some sort ofdamage, such as from a stroke or Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) to the speech/language parts ofour brain. Aphasia is difficulty finding the right words or perhaps understanding words spoken to you.

In the days/weeks immediately following an injury, the most common type of aphasia is global aphasia due to the trauma/swelling/impact. As time progresses a person may fall into two main categories of aphasia: Broca’s Aphasia or Wernike’s Aphasia. With Broca’s Aphasia a person knows what they want to say but can not figure out how to say it. With Wernike’s Aphasia a person will speak but the sentences don’t make sense and they have difficulty understanding what others say to them.

As a person moves away from their event (stroke/TBI) they can improve and be left with anomic aphasia which is like always having the word on the tip of your tongue. You KNOW what you want to say, but just can’t say it!

At Aphasia Relearned we use the analogy of an undamaged brain being a semi-truck carrying a heavy load of all the correct words traveling down a well-maintained, straight and level interstate cruising along easily at 70MPH from point A to B. With aphasia you carry the same load going from point A to B but your truck is old, beat up, poor gas mileage and the road is winding, rocky, full of pot-holes and ruts as well as uphill with a speed of 45 MPH at most. To get there takes a long time and is not an easy route but, as one of our colleagues pointed out, you must be tough to make it to your destination.