Aphasia is a disorder caused by damage to the brain area responsible for the language expression. Symptoms may vary depending on the type of disorder. The left side of the brain is more commonly affected. Patients with aphasia usually face difficulties at work, daily living, and socialization.
Communication disorder includes:
- Speech
- Language comprehension
- Writing
Patients would talk in words or short phrases instead of full sentences, speak with wrong word order, speak meaningless words, and unable to comprehend spoken language, and writing with wrong word order.
Aphasia can be classified by locations of lesion in the brain.
- Broca’s aphasia/non fluent aphasia - Patients have articulation disorder. They can only utter single words or short sentences, but still comprehend words or sentences spoken by others as well as follow instructions. Symptoms depend on the severity of the disorder.
- Wernicke’s aphasia/ fluent aphasia - Patients can fluently speak in sentences, but unable to understand the meaning of words or sentences spoken by oneself or others. They may give totally nonsensical response.
- Global aphasia - Patients are unable to speak fluently nor understand the meaning of words or sentences.
Causes of communication disorder
- Cerebrovascular disease
- Brain injury
- Brain tumor
- Brain infection
- Dementia such as Alzheimer’s disease
Causes of communication disorder can be diagnosed with CT or MRI brain.