Aphasia:
a multi-modality language disturbance due to brain damage.
Aphasia may affect any or all of the following language modalities:
- Auditory Comprehension (listening)
- Reading Comprehension (reading)
- Oral Expression (speaking)
- Written Expression (writing)
Is Aphasia a sensory disorder?
No.
Aphasia is not caused by:
- A motor problem (e.g., paralysis)
- A sensory problem (e.g., hearing loss)
- A thought disorder (e.g., dementia)
People with auditory comprehension deficit may have difficulty in understanding… (Know 2):
- Abstract words as opposed to concrete words (e.g., The Big Apple vs. apple)
- Longer words as opposed to shorter words
- Infrequently used words compared with frequently used words (e.g., domicile vs. house)
Factors that aid patient with auditory comprehension deficit (Know 2):
- Pauses and imposed delays in the right spots will help the patient.
- Stressed words are easier to comprehend, or the words prior to the stressed word may be the important factor.
- Vocabulary related to work, family, functional use, and recreation is easier.
Alexia:
an acquired impairment in reading comprehension due to brain damage.
Oral Expression Deficit (OED):
Difficulty in the formulation of spoken language.
OED manifests itself as … (Know 4):
- Reduced vocabulary with infrequent words mostly gone.
- Jargon, which can be unintelligible words that usually follow phonotactic rules.
- Reduced fluency (nonfluent) or excessive fluency (fluent).
- Circumlocutions, which can be empty speech (e.g., “The thing that’s on the thing with the thing there.”)
- Neologisms, which are made up of new words, expressions, or usages that are understandable (e.g., “skymobile” for airplane, “windglass” for windshield, “inkpencil” for pen).
Circumlocution can be:
- Empty speech (e.g., “The thing that’s on the thing with the thing there”)
- A description of the use or function of the item to be named (e.g., “You carry it” for bag)
- Or using a word that is correct semantically and syntactically but is not in common usage (e.g., in response to, “We sleep in a ___,” one patient said “tent” and another said “building”.
Agrammatism describes…
It is associated with….
It is characterized by….
Also described as…
Agrammatism describes morphological (word), and syntactic (sentence) errors.
It is associated with nonfluent or Broca’s aphasia.
It is characterized by omission of function words.
Also described as telegraphic or condensed speech.
(?) Spontaneous speech is…
usually obtained through complex picture description or an interview. (To look for problems with grammar, we must elicit sentences.)
(?) More restrictive procedures include the following (Know 1):
- Describe pictured actions or object location
- Complete a sentence or short story
- Create a sentence given a noun or verb
- Describe the actions of a clinical investigator
Anomia:
-Word finding difficulty.
-Present in all types of aphasia, as well as in other neurogenic language disorders.
Most consistent feature of aphasia.
Anomic Aphasia:
- A type of fluent aphasia syndrome characterized by fluent, well-articulated, mildly paraphasic, grammatically intact, and somewhat empty speech.
- Outstanding symptom is a naming or word-finding problem that can affect any of the modalities.
- Least severe form of aphasia.
- Sometimes referred to as amnesic aphasia.
Stroke (CVA - Cerebrovascular Accident):
-Disrupts blood flow to the brain.
The 2 types of strokes:
Ischemic strokes and hemorrhagic strokes.
Ischemic stroke:
A blockage or occlusion of an arterial vessel.
Hemorrhagic stroke:
A bursting artery causing blood to accumulate around nearby brain tissue
Thrombosis:
Type of Ischemic stroke.
Occurs from accumulation of atherosclerotic platelets and fatty plaque on the vessel wall at the site of occlusion.
Embolism:
Type of Ischemic stroke.
Platelets and fatty plaque break off a vessel wall and then travel until they become stuck in a smaller cerebral artery.
Aneurysm:
Type of Hemorrhagic stroke.
A dilated blood vessel from the size of a pea to an orange, stretching and weakening the vessel wall.
Tumor:
An abnormal mass of tissue caused by an increased rate in the reproduction of cells. It is a space-occupying lesion that presses against adjacent tissue and obstructs circulation.
Spontaneous recovery:
The body healing itself without any therapy. The greatest amount of spontaneous recovery takes place within the first two months post-onset of the brain lesion.
