Aphasia
Aphasia (or dysphasia) is a complex communication impairment resulting from damage to the brain.
About a quarter of a million people in the UK have aphasia.
A person with aphasia may be lost for words.
It can affect different aspects of language:
- putting ideas and intentions into spoken and written language
- spelling
- putting words together in grammatical sentences
- understanding what is said
- understanding the written word
- using the phone
- using and understanding numbers
- understanding and using other forms of commmunication - e.g. gesture
Everything takes a long time
Aphasia can take different forms.
Aphasia can vary in severity.
Aphasia can change over time.
Aphasia does not affect intelligence.
What causes aphasia?
Aphasia is caused by damage to the language centre of the brain.
This can also result in problems moving the right arm and right leg.
This can be due to:
- stroke
- head injury
- brain tumor
- other neurological illness
Stroke is the most common cause of aphasia.
The loss of communication causes difficulty in all areas of life.
For example, some people may have good social speech. They appear to understand the world around them.
Others produce very few words but understand almost normally.
For more information about aphasia from other organisations, visit our links and addresses page.