Transcription:
What is Aphasia? Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment

Scott Webb (Host): Aphasia is the loss of language skills that typically affects people who've had a stroke or maybe a severe head injury. And I'm joined today by Brenda Lovette. She's a Speech Therapist at Emerson. She's going to explain aphasia to us and tell us about the different approaches to helping restore the ability to communicate in her patients.

This is the Health Works Here podcast from Emerson Hospital. I'm Scott Webb. Brenda, it's so great to have your time. We're going to talk about aphasia and I was doing some research and it seems that there are a lot of maybe misconceptions or misnomers. One of them being that it's a loss of language, not intellect, right? So it's great to have you on and have your expertise. As we get rolling here, what is aphasia?

Brenda Lovette, MS, CCC-SLP, CBIS (Guest): Aphasia is a problem with language that affects a person's ability to communicate. So that could include speaking, listening, reading, and writing.

Host: Yeah. And I was mentioning there, you know, sort of the misnomers or misconceptions. And I think that there's, this, uh, maybe perception by some that, because of this loss of language, that, there's also that loss of intellect. Right? And maybe you could speak to that just a little bit, you know, that you really want folks to know that it's the loss of language and the ability to communicate, but it's not that loss of intellect, the loss of the mind, if you will.

Brenda: Exactly. Yeah. When you meet someone and they start speaking to you, you think that how they're communicating with you is how they're thinking. But actually people who have aphasia often have a lot more thoughts in their mind than they're able to express, or they might not be able to understand certain things. And it's really specifically an issue with their language skills and not their thinking skills.

Host: Yeah. And I'm sure that's very difficult for those suffering from aphasia that as you say, to have all those things in their head that they want to get out and to not be able to do that. Do we know what causes aphasia?

Brenda: Yeah. Aphasia is a symptom that's caused by number of different diagnoses, mostly brain focused diagnoses. So strokes, particularly when they happen on the left side of the brain or other types of brain injuries, and then other neurological changes like certain types of dementia. We should note too that people could have aphasia in addition to other challenges like balance and mobility.

Host: Yeah. So as you say, that aphasia is a symptom, that often results from strokes. I'm sure there's just a lot of parts of people's daily lives that are affected by aphasia. Having these thoughts, not being able to express them or not being able to really fully understand what other people are saying.

So when I have you talk about some of the ways that folks with aphasia are affected, their language, or inability to speak comes into play. What, are the challenges?

Brenda: It's so true. Yeah. Having difficulty with language can be really distressing and affects so many different parts of our lives. I mean, we really take for granted how much we rely on our ability to communicate in pretty much every aspect of our daily life. So, I mean, from, you know, the details of life, like managing bills or shopping in a grocery store, taking a phone call, learning new things, being able to read and keep up with what's going on in the news in the world.

So all of those things can be affected by a language problem and then also our relationships. So being able to connect with people, share ideas, request what we need, even having an argument that requires a lot of language skills, and then showing affection and, telling the people in our lives, how much we appreciate them.

Host: Yeah. And I guess I'm wondering, as you say there there's so many challenges and of course, just things that we take for granted, like the ability to argue with someone or the ability to show and express love to someone. What are the general ways that folks with aphasia find to be able to communicate? Are they typing things out? Are they writing notes? Do they learn sort of a version of sign language? You know, how do they deal with aphasia?

Brenda: That's a great question. So all of those examples that you gave being able to write or being able to learn sign language, those all are different types of language skills as well. So people with aphasia, it depends on their type of aphasia, but all of those things could be impacted as well. So there are some people in some types of aphasia where writing is easier than speaking, but oftentimes both of those skills are impacted.

So, speech therapy is helpful for coming up with strategies and I'm sure we'll talk more about that too. Coming up with strategies about how to express yourself and communicate. There are some people who can use augmentative alternative communication devices. So these are computer systems that have a whole dictionary of words and phrases that people can use to navigate through and have a high-tech device, a computer can, sometimes now that's even on a tablet, that can help them express themselves. But many people sort of, find other ways, you know, other strategies and techniques that can help them.

Host: Yeah. And I'm sure there's a lot of sort of improvisation, right. And within a family, within a home, you know, just finding ways to make it work. But I know that you have specific strategies, in the work that you do and your expertise and all of that. So let's talk about how you help folks with aphasia and how speech therapy in particular helps them.

Brenda: I mean, the very first thing that we do is a very thorough evaluation to determine the person's specific areas of need, what are their strengths and challenges. So, as I mentioned before, aphasia can affect all different aspects of communication, speaking, listening, reading, and writing, but different people can be effected on each of those domains to a different degree.

So some people, you know, might have an easier time with understanding than with speaking and getting the words out. So, we would do that evaluation to really focus in on what an individual's specific needs are, and also in the context of what they need to do in their daily life. So really understanding, okay, is this a person who is working? Is this a person who is a caretaker in their family? What are the specific things that they need to do to communicate in their daily life? And really hone in on those skills. And we have several different evidence-based programs that we use in speech therapy.

In a sense, there are types of exercise programs that we work on in our sessions. But then as I've mentioned, a couple of times, probably the most important thing that we do is developing strategies and techniques for helping people communicate in their actual daily life. So techniques that we teach people to help them think of the tight word that they want to express or to read and understand more successfully. And then we really work with them to set up a home program where they're immersed in language rich activities that they can participate in more successfully. We also have an aphasia conversation group here at Emerson, where we have a group therapy type dynamic, which is really helpful for folks where they can meet other people who are living and thriving with aphasia, and have an opportunity to communicate with each other in that supportive environment.

Host: It's so nice to hear you refer to it like that. Living and thriving with aphasia. Cause I think that my natural follow-up here is cause I'm wondering, do folks sort of, recover if you will, from aphasia, do they recover those language skills? Is it only partially? Is there a range? Does it depend on the person and so on?

Brenda: Yeah, all of those things are absolutely true that, some people will recover completely. And, you know, those are cases that we really celebrate. Many people do have issues that last for a long time or for the rest of their lives. But the thing is, we know from the research, that's always coming out that people can always make progress.

So there's never a expiration date to when people can continue to make progress and improve their language skills and improve their lives, even with living with aphasia.

Host: And I'm sure that's an amazing feeling when someone's been diagnosed and you've been treating them and helping them. And then all of a sudden, it's just like one day, you know, it's back. Right. You know, or mostly back. And you're like, wow, you're doing it. You're speaking. You're understanding me. It's really amazing. Wow. This has really educational and informational today and learning more about aphasia, which I didn't know beforehand, as we wrap up here, what do you love most about being a speech therapist?

Brenda: I love this question. I think communication is so central to life. I love to talk, as you probably can tell from our conversation today and I find it so rewarding and inspiring to help people recover and continue on that journey of recovery. And also I learn so much for my patients. Each individual, I meet, I learn about their interests, about their lives, everything from classic cars, to hiking to whatever it is.

I always get to learn something new from the folks I work with. And I also really learn about resilience and I'm inspired. And I learn from the resilience of the people that I work with and seeing them just tackle the challenges that they have.

Host: Well, you mentioned that you learn from your patients and I definitely learned from you today. So thank you so much.

Brenda: My pleasure. Thank you.

Host: Call 978-287-8200 or visit Emersonhospital.org/rehab for more information and to schedule an appointment.

And thanks for listening to Emerson's Health Works Here podcast. I'm Scott Webb and make sure to catch the next episode by subscribing to the Health Works Here, podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, or wherever podcasts can be heard.