Communication Disorders

Aphasia

an acquired neurological impairment of processing for receptive and/or expressive language. The result of brain injury, head trauma, CVA, tumor or infection.

fluent aphasia

lesion varies based on the type but frequently involves the temporal lobe, Wernicke’s area or regions of the parietal lobe

word output and speech production are functional

prosody is acceptable but empty speech/jargon

Non-fluent aphasia

lesion varies on the type but frequent the frontal lobe of the dominant hemisphere is affected. poor word output and dysprosodic speech

poor articulation and increased effort for speech

content is present but impaired syntactical words

wernicke’s aphasia

Lesion: posterior region of superior temporal gyrus

comprehension impaired

good articulation, use of paraphasias

impaired writing

poor naming ability

conduction aphasia

lesion: supramarginal gyrus, arcuate fasciculus

severe impairments with repetition

intact fluency, good comprehension

speech interrupted by word-finding difficulties

reading intact, writing impaired

broca’s aphasia

lesion: 3rd convolution of frontal lob

most common form of aphasia

intact auditory and reading comprehension

impaired repetition and naming skills

frustration with language skill errors

global aphasia

lesion: frontal, temporal, parietal lobe

comprehension is severely impaired

impaired naming, writing, repetition skills

may involuntarily verbalize, usually without correct context

may use nonverbal skills for communication

verbal apraxia

non-dysarthric and non-aphasic impairment of prosody and articulation of sppech. verbal expression is impaired secondary to deficits in motor planning. A patient is unable to initiate learned movement even though they understand the task.

dysarthria

a motor disorder of speech that is caused by an upper motor neuron lesion that affects the muscles that are used to articulate words and sounds. Speech is often noted as slurred and there may also be an effect on respiratory or phonatory systems due to the weakness