Imagine ….
•    You ask your spouse for a plate, and he hands you a cup.
•    Your spouse seems to get “stuck” on the same word or phrase.
•    Your spouse can say words, but her sentences don’t make sense.

That’s aphasia: a language disorder that results from damage to parts of the brain.  It can affect all modes of language, including speaking; writing; gesturing; understanding what others say; understanding writing; and using numbers.  Aphasia often hides people’s thoughts, ideas, personality, intelligence and competence – they know what they want to say but can’t always get the words out. 

Stroke is the leading cause of aphasia; however, it also can result from brain tumors, head injuries, brain infections, and other conditions of the brain.

People who suffer from aphasia can have difficulty understanding others, particularly strangers.  Or, they can follow the gist of a conversation, but lose track easily, or forget the beginning of a message before reaching the end of it.  They may be able to say individual words, or parts of words, but struggle to complete the entire word or sentence.  Or, they may speak nonsense quickly.    And background noise or lively conversation among a group of people can really exacerbate the difficulty they have understanding conversations.

The University of Michigan Aphasia Program (UMAP) is the oldest program of its kind in North America for the treatment of aphasia.  Established in 1947 to assist World War II veterans who sustained injuries in combat, UMAP has successfully treated thousands of individuals, offering as much speech-language therapy during a six-week session as a person would receive in one year of traditional therapy.

While there is no cure for aphasia, intensive speech therapy has been found to be very effective.  Some of the factors that influence the amount of improvement include the cause of the damage, the area of the brain that was damaged, the extent of the injury, and the age and health of the individual.

Aphasia therapy strives to improve an individual’s ability to communicate by helping the person to utilize their remaining capabilities, to restore lost language abilities as much as possible, to compensate for language deficits and to learn other methods of communicating.

Family involvement is often a crucial component of aphasia treatment.  Caregivers need to connect with the speech-language pathologist who sees their loved one to learn about aphasia and the best techniques to communicate with him or her.

The University of Michigan Aphasia Program encourages caregivers to be advocates for their loved ones, providing them with the encouragement and motivation to continue down the road of recovery with realistic goals and expectations, and a better ability to communicate in their day-to-day living.

For more information, visit aphasiahelp.com.