Neurological Rehabilitation
A stroke or brain injury can have a major impact on the survivor's ability to communicate clearly, especially if the injury affected the left hemisphere of the brain where the language center resides. The exact communication problems a survivor has will depend on which part of the brain was impacted and how large of an area was damaged.
Receptive aphasia
This type of aphasia involves problems understanding what is being said. With receptive aphasia, an individual may not be able to understand long, complex sentences and may be able to write but unable to read back what they have written.
Expressive aphasia
Those with expressive aphasia have difficulty expressing what they want to say, might not be able to speak at all or may communicate with sounds instead of words. Those with less severe expressive aphasia may skip words while speaking, take long pauses while speaking or be unaware that what they just said was unrecognizable.
Mixed aphasia
Also known as global aphasia, mixed aphasia is a combination of problems that can change most or all of a person's communication skills. Those with mixed aphasia deal with components of both receptive and expressive aphasia.
A speech language pathologist will develop an individualized plan to meet your communication goals. For people with aphasia, speech and language therapy aims to:
• help restore as much of your speech and language as possible (reduce impairment)
• help you communicate to the best of your ability (increase activity and participation)
• find alternative ways of communicating (use compensatory strategies or aids)
• provide information to patients and their relatives about aphasia