Stroke / Aphasia

Aphasia typically occurs suddenly after a stroke or a head injury and is a condition that robs you of the ability to communicate. It can affect your ability to speak, write, and understand language, both verbal and written.

It can also come on gradually from a slow-growing brain tumor or a disease that causes progressive, permanent damage (degenerative). The severity of aphasia depends on a number of conditions, including the cause and the extent of brain damage.

A person with aphasia may:

• Speak in short or incomplete sentences
• Speak in sentences that don’t make sense
• Substitute one word for another or one sound for another
• Speak unrecognizable words
• Not understand other people’s conversation
• Write sentences that don’t make sense