Aphasia Health Article

KEY TERMS

Anomia—Difficulty thinking of a specific word to express an idea; word retrieval impairment.

Apraxia of speech—Difficulty selecting and sequencing movements to pronounce speech sounds in the absence of weakness or uncoordination.

Compensatory—Treatments focused on circumventing language impairments by using alternative methods to communicate.

Comprehension—Ability to understand language messages.

Dysarthria—Speech impairment due to impaired motor (for example, weakness, uncoordination) or sensory function.

Dysgraphia—Impaired writing abilities.

Dyslexia—Impaired reading abilities.

Fluency—Ease with which an individual forms complete, correct, rhythmic sentences.

Neologism—Nonsense words misspoken for an intended word (for example, sparndle for fork).

Paraphasia—Mis-selection of a word that may relate to the intended word in meaning or sound.

Repetition—Ability to imitate words and sentences exactly as presented.

Restorative—Treatments focused on regaining normal language abilities.

BOOKS

Chapey, R. Language intervention strategies in aphasia and related neurogenic communication disorders (4th ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins, 2001.

LaPointe, L.L. Aphasia and related neurogenic language disorders (2nd ed.) Thieme, 1997.

PERIODICALS

Albert, M.L. "Treatment of aphasia." Archives of Neurology 55(1998):1417-1419.

ORGANIZATIONS

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. 10801 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852, 800-638-8255, <http://www.asha.org>.

National Aphasia Association. 156 Fifth Avenue, Suite 707, New York, NY, 10010. <http://www.aphasia.org>.

National Institute of Deafness and other Communicative Disorders: Health Information: aphasia. National Institutes of Health, 31 Center Drive, MSC 2320, Bethesda, MD, 20892-2320. <http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/pubs_vsl/aphasia.htm>.

Anastasia Marie Raymer, Ph.D.