Aphasia

Aphasia is a disorder that affects how you communicate and understand language. It makes it difficult to:

• Talk.
• Listen.
• Read.
• Write.

You might think about the challenges you’d face trying to communicate when traveling to another country. But what if the language you use every day suddenly becomes foreign? You might not be able to ask for a glass of water if you’re thirsty. You wouldn’t be able to understand a story that your friend is telling you. And frighteningly enough, you wouldn’t be able to tell someone that you’re hurt. For many people, this is what it might feel like to have symptoms of aphasia.

This condition happens after damage to the language center of your brain, usually after a stroke. It can also happen with conditions that disrupt how your brain works. The effects of aphasia can be temporary, like during a migraine, or more long-lasting, after a traumatic brain injury.

While aphasia affects your ability to communicate, it doesn’t affect your intelligence. Treatment options are available to help you communicate and better understand different forms of language.

What are the types of aphasia?

There are multiple types of aphasia, including:

• Anomic aphasia.
• Broca’s aphasia.
• Conduction aphasia.
• Global aphasia.
• Mixed transcortical aphasia.
• Primary progressive aphasia (PPA).
• Transcortical motor aphasia.
• Transcortical sensory aphasia.
• Wernicke’s aphasia (receptive aphasia).

How common is it?

In the United States, an estimated 180,000 people are diagnosed with aphasia each year. This equals about 1 in every 272 people.