What is Aphasia?
Aphasia is a communication disorder or condition that makes it difficult to read, write or speak. It can happen after a stroke or following a brain injury.
The NHS Choices website says
'Aphasia is a condition that affects the brain and leads to problems using language correctly.
People with aphasia make mistakes with the words they use, sometimes using the wrong sounds in a word, choosing the wrong word, or putting words together incorrectly.
Aphasia also affects speaking and writing in the same way. Many people with the condition find it difficult to understand words and sentences they hear or read.'
Aphasia makes communicating difficult but does not affect intelligence.
People with Aphasia often find it hard in social situations as joining in conversations can be difficult.
Expressive Aphasia.
There are different types of Aphasia, one is Broca's or expressive Aphasia this is where a person can understand simply structured language fairly easily but finds it harder to understand more complex sentences that say the same thing. As and example saying 'Claire gave the dog some food' may be easy to understand but 'The food was given to the dog by Claire'.is difficult.
Receptive Asphasia.
Receptive or Wernick's Aphasia is when the ability to understand the meaning of spoken words or sentences is limited but the ability to produce words and grammatically correct sentences is not affected. Often what a person with receptive Aphasia says does not make sense and their sentences may include irrelevant and even made up words.
Colin Lyall of SayAphasia says;
'Having Asphasia is like having part of your brain disconnected with the other so you know what you are trying to say but can't find the words to say it'
Paul, a regular drop-in attendee says;
'The worst thing is to lose your communication. When I first had my stroke I couldn't talk at all. It was very depressing. A lot of people who have Aphasia get depressed. They can't work and do what they used to do. This group has helped me to have fun again.'
Nicole, who had a stroke 10 years ago says;
'We are not as quick at speaking as we used to be and some days are better or worse than others.'
Carole, who has Hemiplegia says;
'Each person with Aphasia experiences it differently. At Say Aphasia we all help each other out.'
Gary, who likes the aware events says;
'People don't know what aphasia is. 350,000 in UK have aphasia, but 85% never heard of it! With our events, with leaflets and flyers, we get awareness about Say Aphasia charity.'
Say Aphasia is run solely by volunteers.
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