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You may find you have communication difficulties following a stroke, this might include aphasia, dysarthria and apraxia of speech.
Aphasia (also called dysphasia)
Aphasia is a language disorder (not intellect) caused by damage to the language centre of the brain.
You may have difficulty with
- Expressing yourself
- Understanding what others say
- Reading
- Writing
Current figures show there are about 58,000 people living with aphasia in the North East. About a third of all people with stroke will have aphasia. There are 350,000 people living with aphasia in the UK.
Aphasia and understanding
- You may recognise the words but not always understand what they mean.
- You may understand short, simple sentences but not understand long conversations or complicated language.
- You may be able to read words aloud but not understand them.
Aphasia and expression
You may experience
- Word finding difficulties – you know the word you want to say but are unable to find it.
- Word errors – you may say words which are similar in meaning, e.g. table for chair, or sound similar, e.g. tat for cat.
- Jargon speech – you may say some real words but also words/phrases that aren’t real (non-words).
- Perseveration – you may say the same word or phrase over and over again, instead of the word you want.
- You may only be able to say the main words, e.g. ‘I home’ instead of ‘I want to go home now’.
Aphasia may make you feel
- Irritated when the words won’t come out
- Angry when other people do not understand what you are saying
- Frustrated when other people speak on your behalf
- Embarrassed with an altered style of communication
- Sad due to the loss of language, communication and connection with people
Aphasia can affect
- Changes in job and social identity
- Role changes with partner/family members
- Breakdown in emotional and physical relationships
- Friendships
- Anxiety about meeting strangers
Dysarthria
Dysarthria is the disturbance in muscular control of speech.
You may
- Have difficulty with articulation, pronunciation and voice production.
- Find your speech is slurred and slow.
- Find your voice is weak or strained sounding.
- Have the inability to speak louder than a whisper or speaking too loudly.
- Have abnormal speech rhythm.
Apraxia of speech (AoS)
Apraxia of speech is difficulty coordinating the lip/tongue muscles used to form words.
You may
- Find it difficult to say a word correctly.
- Swap, miss or repeat sounds.
- Be able to say some automatic phrases such as counting, greetings, saying your name.
- Say a word the right way once but be unable to say it the next time.
- Also have aphasia and/or dysarthria.
Tips to help
More resources
Visit our Stroke Services Information page for more information about local services for people with communication difficulties after a stroke in the North East and North Cumbria.