CSD 101: Adult Language Disorders, TBI, Dementia, and Glasgow Coma Scale

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering adult-acquired language disorders, stroke mechanisms, aphasia syndromes, TBI, dementia stages, assessment, and Glasgow Coma Scale scoring from CSD 101.

Adult-Acquired Language Disorders

Language impairments that arise during adulthood following brain injury or neurological disease, distinguishing them from developmental disorders that originate in childhood.

Aphasia

An acquired adult language disorder literally meaning 'without language' that can impair speaking, listening, reading, and writing, most frequently caused by a stroke.

Stroke

An interruption of normal blood supply to the brain, presenting warning signs such as sudden unilateral weakness in the face, arm, or leg, sudden vision changes, severe headache, or sudden confusion.

High Blood Pressure

The leading risk factor for stroke identified in Lecture 11, alongside other vascular risk factors such as high cholesterol and diabetes.

Ischemic Stroke

A classification of stroke caused by a blockage, such as a clot, in a cerebral artery that impedes blood flow to brain tissue.

Hemorrhagic Stroke

A classification of stroke caused by bleeding resulting from a ruptured blood vessel in the brain.

Broca's Area

A language center situated in the inferior portion of the language-dominant frontal lobe.

Wernicke's Area

A language center located in the posterior portion of the left temporal lobe.

Broca's Aphasia

A nonfluent language profile associated with left frontal damage, characterized by effortful, reduced, telegraphic speech output (e.g., 'boy… cookie… fall') with relatively preserved comprehension.

Wernicke's Aphasia

A fluent language profile associated with left temporal damage, characterized by effortless, smoothly articulated speech that is nonsensical or contains invented words, paired with severe comprehension deficits.

Localized Brain Damage

Neurological damage that is confined to a specific, identifiable area of the brain, as opposed to diffuse damage.

Diffuse Brain Damage

Neurological damage that is widespread throughout multiple regions of the brain.

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Brain damage resulting from external physical forces, frequently caused by motor vehicle accidents and falls.

Closed Head Injury

A traumatic brain injury occurring inside the skull where blunt force trauma damages brain tissue without an object penetrating the skull.

Open Head Injury

A traumatic brain injury involving a fractured skull where an external object breaches and penetrates the skull.

Coup Injury

Focal brain injury occurring at the initial impact site where the brain strikes the interior wall of the skull.

Contrecoup Injury

Brain injury occurring directly opposite the primary site of impact as the brain rebounds within the skull cavity.

Hematoma

Focal bleeding and pooling of blood resulting from ruptured blood vessels within the cranial vault.

Concussion

A common form of closed-head TBI in which the duration and presence of loss of consciousness serve as primary determiners of severity and recovery trajectory.

Pragmatic Communication Difficulties

Pervasive social-communication impairments following TBI, characterized by poor turn-taking, interrupting, irrelevant remarks, reduced difficulty awareness, and abrupt topic shifts.

Dementia

An acquired clinical syndrome characterized by progressive intellectual decline due to neurological causes, with memory impairment being the most prominent feature.

Alzheimer's Disease

A progressive, degenerative neurological disorder accounting for approximately $60\text{–}80\%$ of all dementia cases.

Early-Stage Alzheimer's Disease

The initial phase of Alzheimer's disease characterized primarily by word-finding difficulties and trouble recalling familiar names of people or objects.

Middle-Stage Alzheimer's Disease

The intermediate phase of Alzheimer's disease marked by worsening memory loss, decreasing vocabulary, reading and writing difficulties, and social withdrawal.

Late-Stage Alzheimer's Disease

The advanced phase of Alzheimer's disease characterized by severely reduced verbal expression and substantial impairment in language comprehension.

Oral Peripheral Examination

A clinical assessment procedure evaluating the structural and functional integrity of speech mechanisms.

Semantic Feature Analysis

A structured speech-language intervention approach named in Lecture 12 designed to improve word retrieval by exploring the semantic properties of target words.

Scripted Conversation

A functional intervention method practiced in therapy to train automaticity and confidence in specific, recurring conversational interactions.

Compensatory Communication Strategies

External aids and techniques—such as memory books, communication boards, journals, or outlining topics—used to maintain a patient's highest level of functional communication.

Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS)

A standardized clinical assessment tool measuring acute consciousness and head injury severity across eye-opening (1–4), verbal (1–5), and motor (1–6) responses.

GCS Mild Injury

A Glasgow Coma Scale total score ranging from $13\text{–}15$.

GCS Moderate Injury

A Glasgow Coma Scale total score ranging from $9\text{–}12$.

GCS Severe Injury

A Glasgow Coma Scale total score of $8$ or less.

Cookie Theft Task

A standard picture-description assessment tool discussed in Lecture 11 depicting a mother washing overflowing dishes and a child on a tipping stool reaching into a cookie jar.