Aphasia Type of Errors

Word Error Types

• Substitutions: Words that may be appropriate in context, but are not the target word

  • Not counted as a correct script word

  • EX: “cut the hedges” instead of “trim the hedges”

• Additions: Words that were added to the script, may be inappropriate

  • EX: I need to make an appointment for the doctor

  • Counted as a part of total words produced, but not included in number of correct script words

• Rephrasing/Restarts: False starts, incomplete phrases and sentences, in addition to attempts at self-corrections

• Extraneous Words/Phrases: Words and/or comments not related to the script topic

  • EX: “I can’t remember” or “I’m sorry, just a minute.”

  • Not included in the total word count or correct script count

• Phonemic Paraphasia: Substitutions of phonemes within a target script word

  • EX: “talt” instead of “talk”

  • Not counted as a correct script word, but is included in the total word count

• Verbal Paraphasia: Substitutions of related words

  • Not counted as a correct script word, was counted in the total word count

• Circumlocution: Productions of words related to the target script word that eventually resulted in the production of the correct script word

  • Successful production of target word counted as a correct script production

  • Multiple production prior to the correct production were included in the total word count

• Fillers: Words such as “um” and “uh”

  • Not counted in total word count or correct script word count

Paraphasias and Errors

• Phonemic/Literal Paraphasia: Addition, substitution, or deletion of a phoneme in a word

  • “Candan” for “Canadian”

• Semantic Paraphasia: Saying a word in the same category as the target word

  • “Train” for “Bus”

• Random Paraphasia: Saying a word that is nothing related to the target words

  • “September” for “hungry”

• Circumlocution: Describing a target word without actually saying it

  • “It’s red and it grows on trees” for “apple”

• Indefinite Substitution: Saying a general word instead of a specific word

  • “there” for “my house”

• Neologism: Saying a made-up word in place of the target word

  • “banertine” for “soccer”

• Silent Pauses: When someone pauses without talking between words

• False Starts: When someone starts saying a phrase before changing it to something else

  • “He had…the girl had the wrong number.”

• Abandoned Utterances: When a sentence stops in the middle

  • “He was drawing…”

• Metalinguistic Comments: When someone makes a comment on their language deficits