Understanding Aphasia: Stroke Impacts On Speech And Language

how can a stroke affect speech

Strokes can have a significant impact on a person's ability to speak and communicate, affecting their independence and quality of life. This is known as aphasia, a language disorder caused by strokes in the left side of the brain, which controls speech and language. Aphasia can manifest as difficulties in verbalising thoughts, understanding others, reading, writing, and using numbers. It can also impair music-related abilities, such as reading, performing, or listening to music. Speech problems that may occur include dysarthria, characterised by slurred or slow speech due to muscle weakness, and apraxia of speech, where individuals struggle to coordinate the muscles used for speech. These conditions can make it challenging for stroke survivors to express their needs, connect with others, and return to work. However, speech and language therapy can help individuals recover their communication skills and adapt to new ways of interacting with the world around them.

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Aphasia: a language disorder that affects your ability to communicate

Aphasia is a language disorder that affects your ability to communicate. It is often caused by strokes in the left side of the brain, which controls speech and language. Aphasia can impact individuals in different ways, with some people experiencing difficulties in verbalising thoughts or understanding others, while others may struggle with reading and writing.

People with aphasia may have trouble with daily communication activities, whether at home, socially, or at work. They may feel isolated as a result, but it is important to note that aphasia does not affect intelligence. Stroke survivors remain mentally alert, even if their speech is jumbled, fragmented, or difficult to understand.

There are several types of aphasia, each with different symptoms. Some individuals with aphasia can understand language but cannot speak, while others may speak without making sense, producing sentences that are jumbles of random or made-up words. Aphasia can also affect the ability to read, write, or use numbers. In some cases, it can cause challenges related to music, such as reading, performing, or listening to music.

The two primary language centres of the brain are typically located in the left hemisphere: Broca's area, which is associated with producing language, and Wernicke's area, which is associated with comprehending language. Aphasia is often the result of damage to these areas, leading to difficulties in language production and comprehension.

Treatment for aphasia typically involves speech and language therapy, where individuals are taught new ways to communicate, such as through gestures, electronic devices, or other compensation or coping strategies. Speech and language therapists work with patients to improve their speech, reading, and writing abilities and help them regain their communication skills and independence.

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Dysarthria: weakness or incoordination of the muscles involved with speech

Dysarthria is a speech disorder that can occur after a stroke. It is a motor speech disorder that results from weakness or incoordination of the muscles involved with speech. This can cause issues with pronunciation, the loudness of the voice, and the ability to speak at a normal rate with normal intonation. The specific symptoms of dysarthria will vary depending on the location and severity of the stroke.

Dysarthria occurs when there is damage to the nervous system, which can happen as a result of brain damage, trauma, or certain illnesses and conditions. This damage can cause paralysis or weakness in the muscles that are used for speech, including those in the face, throat, and those that help with breathing. Dysarthria can also make swallowing difficult.

Speech therapy is often recommended as a treatment for dysarthria, with a focus on strengthening the tongue, lips, and jaw muscles, as well as strategies for speaking more clearly and loudly. Nonverbal communication techniques may also be taught, and in severe cases, a communication device may be needed.

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Apraxia of speech: difficulty with the brain telling the muscles how to move when speaking

Apraxia of speech (AOS) is a speech sound disorder that affects the brain pathways involved in planning the sequence of movements needed for speech production. While the brain knows what it wants to say, it cannot properly plan and sequence the required speech sound movements. This results in difficulty with the brain telling the muscles how to move when speaking.

AOS is not caused by weakness or paralysis of the speech muscles, which would be indicative of dysarthria, a separate speech disorder. Instead, AOS is caused by damage to the parts of the brain involved in speaking, leading to the loss or impairment of existing speech abilities. This damage can be caused by a stroke, head injury, tumour, or other illnesses affecting the brain.

People with AOS may distort sounds, especially vowels, as they are unable to place their tongue or jaw in the correct position. Longer or more complex words are usually harder to say than shorter or simpler words. They may also make inconsistent errors in speech, such as saying a word correctly one day and struggling with it the next.

Another characteristic of AOS is the incorrect use of prosody, which refers to the rhythm and inflection of speech that helps convey meaning. Someone with AOS might use equal stress, segment syllables in a word, omit syllables in words and phrases, or pause inappropriately while speaking.

Children with AOS generally understand language much better than they are able to use it. They may also experience other speech problems, expressive language problems, or motor-skill problems. Treatment for AOS involves speech-language therapy, with intensive, one-on-one sessions being necessary for both children and adults.

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Broca’s aphasia: difficulty with spoken and written expression

Aphasia is a language disorder that affects a person's ability to communicate. It is often caused by strokes in the left side of the brain, which is responsible for controlling speech and language. Aphasia does not affect intelligence, but stroke survivors may find their speech is jumbled, fragmented or hard to understand.

There are several types of aphasia, including Broca's aphasia, also known as expressive aphasia. People with Broca's aphasia have trouble speaking fluently, but their comprehension can be relatively preserved. They find it difficult to produce grammatical sentences and their speech is limited to short utterances of fewer than four words. Producing the right sounds or finding the right words can be a laborious process, with some people finding verbs more challenging than nouns.

For example, a person with Broca's aphasia may say, "Walk dog", meaning "I will take the dog for a walk", or "book book two table", meaning "There are two books on the table". They may also have difficulty with verb conjugation, for instance, saying "I runned to the store" instead of "I ran to the store".

People with Broca's aphasia typically understand the speech of others fairly well, especially when the grammatical structure of the spoken language is simple. However, they may struggle with sentences that have a more complex grammatical structure. For instance, the sentence "Mary gave John balloons" may be easy to understand, but "The balloons were given to John by Mary" may pose a challenge.

Individuals with Broca's aphasia may be able to read but may be limited in their writing ability. This type of aphasia results from injury to speech and language brain areas, such as the left hemisphere inferior frontal gyrus. Such damage is often the result of a stroke, but it may also be caused by brain trauma.

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Wernicke’s aphasia: difficulty understanding speech and producing meaningful speech

A stroke occurs when blood flow to the brain is cut off, causing brain cells to become damaged and die. Strokes in the left side of the brain are more common and the effects are typically more noticeable, as this is the side that controls most of our communication skills. A stroke affecting the left side of the brain can therefore result in aphasia, or difficulty speaking.

Aphasia is a language disorder that affects a person's ability to communicate. It is often the result of a left hemisphere stroke, as the two primary language centres of the brain typically reside in the left hemisphere. These language centres include Broca's area, which is associated with producing language, and Wernicke's area, which is associated with comprehending language.

Wernicke's aphasia is a type of fluent aphasia, also known as receptive aphasia, where the ability to understand speech and produce meaningful language is affected. It occurs when the left middle side of the brain, known as Wernicke's area, becomes damaged or altered. This area of the brain controls human language and is also near where we store our personal dictionaries.

People with Wernicke's aphasia may string words together to make sentences that don't make sense, make up words that have no meaning, and be unaware of the mistakes in their speech. They may deliver words in a normal melodic line, even though the content may not make any sense, and they may also articulate their words normally. They may also have difficulty repeating phrases and may add words when trying to repeat someone.

While spoken language may be affected, other aspects of brain functioning may not be impacted. For example, those with Wernicke's aphasia may have severely impaired reading and writing ability, but they may understand visual materials better than written or spoken words. They may also maintain cognitive abilities other than those associated with language.

Wernicke's aphasia may diminish language abilities, but it is possible that these abilities will be regained over time with medical intervention. Speech and language intervention is most effective when it begins soon after the brain injury.

Frequently asked questions

A stroke is the result of an injury to the brain caused by a bleed in the brain or a blood clot. This causes injury and loss of function to the brain.

A stroke can cause a variety of communication problems, including aphasia, dysarthria, and apraxia of speech. Aphasia is a language disorder that affects your ability to communicate. Dysarthria is when you can't control the muscles in your face, mouth, and throat, making it difficult to speak clearly. Apraxia of speech is when you can't move the muscles in your face, mouth, or throat in the correct order to form words.

Someone who has suffered a stroke may exhibit signs of apraxia, such as struggling to say words correctly; dysarthria, such as slurred speech; or aphasia, such as jumbled or nonsensical sentences.

Very common. According to a 2020 study, 64% of stroke survivors experience communication problems. About one-third of stroke survivors have trouble with speaking, reading, writing, and understanding others.

Yes, most people who have suffered a stroke are able to recover their language and communication skills. Speech therapy is one of the best ways to help someone regain their communication abilities.

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