Acquired Communication Disorders in Adults

Dysphasia

Dysphasia is a disorder which affects a persons ability to understand and use words. It generally occurs following a stroke or head injury. The severity varies from person to person, but usually understanding, speech, reading and writing are all affected to some degree.

Understanding problems:

Although the person can hear words, they are unable to make any sense of them. It's as if everyone is speaking a foreign language that they cannot understand. Again the severity varies from being unable to understand any spoken words to having difficulty if someone speaks too quickly, or if there is a background noise.

Expressive problems:

The person with dysphasia will have some degree of difficulty putting what they want to say into words. They may have problems putting a complete sentence together or be unable to find the right words. Some people produce 'jargon', which is fluent but empty or meaningless speech.

Reading and Writing problems:

There may be difficulties recognising written words or the person may be able to read the words aloud but be unable to understand what they mean. Similarly writing is usually affected where it may be difficult to spell words correctly or write a meaningful sentence. Therefore giving a person pen and paper to write down what they cannot say, is not generally helpful.

Dysarthria

This is the name given to a group of disorders which affect movement of the muscles involved in speech production, including the lips, tongue, soft palate and vocal cords. Weakness, slowness or inco-ordination of movements will result in slurred and / or nasal sounding speech, which may be difficult to understand.

Dysarthria is caused by a variety of conditions, including stroke, head injury, Parkinson's disease, Multiple Sclerosis and Motor Neuron Disease. It is often accompanied by difficulties with swallowing.

Dyspraxia

Dyspraxia is a disorder which results in difficulties putting speech sounds together correctly. It's effects vary, from being unable to put any meaningful words together to slightly 'foreign' sounding speech. It rarely occurs in isolation; there is also usually an element of dysphasia. 

We all tend to take communication very much for granted, until something goes wrong. All of the difficulties outlined above can be very frustrating for family and friends. It is important that everyone involved is as patient and understanding as possible.

Speech and Language therapists are trained to assess, diagnose and treat these disorders. Your therapist will advise on how best to help a person with difficulties and will plan and carry out an appropriate therapy programme.

Useful Contacts:

• Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists, 29 Gardiner Place , Dublin 1. Telephone:01-8780215
• E-mail: info@iaslt.com
• Volunteer Stroke Scheme, 249 Crumlin Road , Dublin 12. Telephone: 01-4557455
• Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association, Carmichael House, North Brunswick Street , Dublin 7. Telephone: 01-8730422