Dysphasia

1. Dysphasia • Dysphasia is a disorder of language that can occur as a result of stroke • It can range from mild to severe. • It can affect: • Speech • Understanding speech • Reading • Writing

2. Fluent Dysphasia • Normal speed and intonation • Nonsense words/jargon • Poor self-monitoring and awareness of errors • Understanding often poor

3. “Cookie Theft” Picture

4. Example of fluent speech (Based on description of cookie theft picture.) “Well this is…….mother is away here working her work out o’here to get her better, but when she’s looking, the two boys looking in the other part.”

5. Non-fluent dysphasia • Slow and hesitant • Articulation errors • mostly uses nouns • Understanding is usually intact

6. Example of non-fluent speech (Based on a description of the cookie theft picture) “Cookie jar…fall over….chair…water…empty”

7. Fluent/non-fluent dysphasia • In reality, it is not always that clear cut. People do not always fall neatly into one type of dysphasia. • People can change from one to the other in the early days after a stroke. • Sometimes people have some of the symptoms of one type and some of the other eg. good comprehension but jargon words.

8. Swearing • People often swear when they have dysphasia. • This is because there is a lack of control in the brain over what is said. • Don’t be offended! They can’t help it.

9. Singing and automatic speech • People with dysphasia can often sing songs or recite days of week or other learned utterances. • These are stored in the person’s memory in a different part of the brain than the language centre for making up sentences.