Managing Speech and Language Deficits after Stroke

Psychotherapy for Families after Brain Injury

“…Aphasia is a communication disorder affecting speaking, comprehension of spoken or written language, repetition, naming, reading, and writing (Sinanović 2010;Stewart and Riedel 2011). Everyday activities are cumbersome or impossible, including conversing, using technology, or watching television (see Gillespie et al 2010, for a review).…”

“…This section reviews three types of aphasia: Broca's, Wernicke's, and Global aphasia. Broca's, nonfluent, motor, or expressive aphasia is regularly related to a middle cerebral artery stroke affecting the left frontal lobe (Markus et al 2010;Stein 2004;Stewart and Riedel 2011). It is characterized by poor speech production (Festa et al 2008).…”

“…It is characterized by poor speech production (Festa et al 2008). Early on, the loved one may be mute (Stewart and Riedel 2011). The loved one may know what he or she wants to say, but cannot find the words (Stein 2004).…”

“…The flow of speech is impaired. It is often halting and hesitant, with short and simple utterances and abnormal sentence structure (Caplan 2010;Cherney and Small 2009;Festa et al 2008;Stewart and Riedel 2011). This is known as telegraphic speech, in which small connector words are missing (Festa et al 2008;Stein 2004).…”

“…It is characterized by speech that is fluent, but with word errors, as well as impaired auditory comprehension, repetition, naming, reading, and writing (Cherney and Small 2009;Festa et al 2008). Language output contains real words, word substitutions (paraphasias), and neologisms (i.e., made-up words; Cherney and Small 2009;Kramer et al 2010;Stewart and Riedel 2011). The speech output can sound vague and meaningless (jargon with multiple paraphasias), but the loved one may not be aware of this (Cherney and Small 2009;Festa et al 2008;Kramer et al 2010;Stewart and Riedel 2011).…”