Types of Aphasia

Language is much more than words. It involves our ability to recognize and use words and sentences. Much of this capability resides in the left hemisphere of the brain. When a person has a stroke or other injury that affects the left side of the brain, it typically disrupts their ability to use language.

Through language, we:

• Communicate our inner thoughts, desires, intentions and motivations.
• Understand what others say to us.
• Ask questions.
• Give commands.
• Comment and interchange.
• Listen.
• Speak.
• Read.
• Write.

A stroke that affects the left side of the brain may lead to aphasia, a language impairment that makes it difficult to use language in those ways. Aphasia can have tragic consequences.

People with aphasia:

• May be disrupted in their ability to use language in ordinary circumstances.
• May have difficulty communicating in daily activities.
• May have difficulty communicating at home, in social situations, or at work.
• May feel isolated.

Scientists and clinicians who study how language is stored in the brain have learned that different aspects of language are located in different parts of the left hemisphere. For example, areas in the back portions allow us to understand words. When a stroke affects this posterior or back part of the left hemisphere, people can have great difficulty understanding what they hear or read.

Imagine going to a foreign country and hearing people speaking all around you. You would know they were using words and sentences. You might even have an elemental knowledge of that language, allowing you to recognize words here and there, but you would not have command of the language and couldn’t follow most conversation. This is what life is like for people with comprehension problems.

People with comprehension problems:

• Know that people are speaking to them.
• Can follow some of the melody of sentences – realizing if someone is asking a question or expressing anger.
• May have great difficulty understanding specific words.
• May have great difficulty understanding how words go together to convey a complete thought.

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