FREE ESSAY ON APHASIA

APHASIA

What is Aphasia?
Aphasia is the impairment of spoken or written language caused by injury to the brain. It
is also commonly referred to as Dysphasia. There are several different categories and
many different types of Aphasia. 
What causes Aphasia?
Aphasia is usually the result of a brain tumor, lesion, stroke, or severe blow to the
head. Right-handed people can only acquire Aphasia if they have an injury in the left
cerebral hemisphere, whereas left-handed people can quire Aphasia from an injury in
either the right or left cerebral hemisphere. Therefor, left-handed people are more prone
to getting Aphasia.
Categories of Aphasia
There are several different systems for categorizing Aphasia. The more common one
consists of two broad classifications: Broca's and Wernickes. In Broca's, the patient
normally understands speech fairly well, but has difficulty in retrieving words and has
hence naming objects or expressing themselves. 
In Wernickes, the patient normally produces fluent but incomprehensible speech, or
jargon, and comprehends poorly the speech of others. 
The other systems places all types of Aphasia in categories labeled fluent and nonfluent.
In fluent, the patient usually has a normal rate of speech without the hesitations or
pauses common in nonfluent. Generally, people whose type of Aphasia falls under the
fluent category have difficulty comprehending speech. In nonfluent, the patient usually
produces effortful, telegraphic style speech marked by pauses. The ability of these
patients to understand speech is usually good. 
Types of Aphasia
There are many different types of Aphasia. Some of them are:
Global Aphasia: This is the most severe form of Aphasia. Patients with Global Aphasia
produce hardly any recognizable words and understand barely any spoken language. People
with Global Aphasia do not have the ability to read or write.
Broca's Aphasia: This is a form of Aphasia where the patient has reduced speech outturn,
and produces mainly short utterances of less than four words. Vocabulary access is
limited, and forming of sound is often difficult and clumsy. The patient may understand
speech reasonably well and may be able to read, but is limited in their writing
abilities. 
Mixed non-fluent Aphasia: This term is applied to patients with an illness similar to
sever Broca's Aphasia. Unlike Broca's Aphasia, tough, patients with mixed non-fluent
Aphasia are limited in their understanding of speech and cannot read or write much beyond
an elementary level. It can also be known as damage to the frontal lobe of the brain. 
Wernicke's Aphasia: The patient has lost the ability to understand the meaning of spoken
words, while the ability to produce understandable, connected speech has not been much
affected. Their speech, though, is not really normal, as sentences do not hang together
and unrelated words infringe. Writing and reading are often severely impaired. It can
also be known as damage to the temporal lobe of the brain.
Sensory Aphasia: The loss of the meaning of symbols, leaving the patient to hear but not
understand words. 
Anomic Aphasia: Patients with this have an inability to supply words for the very things
they are trying to talk about. As a result their speech is full of vague expressions and
frustration.
Transient Aphasia: This is the name for temporary aphasia, which lasts for only a few
hours or days. 
Characteristics of patients with Aphasia
When a person with Aphasia speaks the smaller words are often left out, reducing the
sentence to Key words, like a message from a telegraph. Some times sounds are mixed up,
like calling a bank teller a tank beller, and some times words are mixed up, like calling
a table a chair. People with Aphasia often need more time than a normal person would to
understand what is being said to them. They often do not immediately know the meaning of
the words they are hearing, kind of like listening to somebody speaking in a foreign
language. Many people with Aphasia, however, are able to remember certain automatic
responses, like naming the days of the week, counting, and social responses, like please
and thank you. 
The most common characteristic in Aphasia is difficulty in naming. 
Statistics
About one million people in the United States have Aphasia. The majority of these people
have the disease as the result of a stroke. About one third of people with severe head
injuries have it. It is estimated that about 80,000 people worldwide acquire aphasia each
year. Most people who get it are in their middle to late years, although anyone can.
History of Aphasia
The earliest written references to speechlessness due to trauma can be found in the
writings of the ancient Greek philosopher Hypocrites. It has only been in the past 20
years that scientists have been able to do productive research on Aphasia and its
origins.