What Is Aphasia?

Aphasia is the loss of a person's ability to understand or produce speech and language, caused by damage to specific language-related areas of the brain. It most commonly results from a stroke or a head injury, though it can also develop gradually from a brain tumor or a neurodegenerative disease. How severe it is depends largely on the extent and cause of the underlying brain damage.

A man puzzles over a game on the table while his wife holds his hand

Aphasia affects language, not intelligence.

Types of Aphasia

Aphasia isn't one single pattern — it shows up differently depending on which part of the brain and language network is affected.

Receptive (Wernicke's or fluent) aphasia — the person can speak at length in complex, grammatically fluent sentences, but the content often comes out incorrect, unrecognizable, or padded with unnecessary words. Understanding of language is also affected, and the person often doesn't realize others aren't following them
Global aphasia — the most severe form, involving extensive damage across the brain's language networks, which affects word formation, sentence construction, and comprehension of both spoken and written language all at once
Expressive (Broca's or non-fluent) aphasia — the person generally understands what's said to them, but struggles to speak in a way that comes out clearly, often producing short, telegraphic phrases ("want water" instead of "I'd like a glass of water"). Because comprehension is largely intact, these patients are aware of their difficulty communicating, which can be frustrating, and some also experience right-sided weakness or paralysis alongside it
Deaf aphasia — a rarer presentation where a deaf person who communicates in sign language develops aphasia symptoms. Sign language draws on the same brain regions as spoken language, so an advanced signer can experience the same kind of communication breakdown from a brain injury as someone who speaks

Signs of Aphasia to Look For

A few patterns tend to show up in someone dealing with aphasia.

Substituting the wrong word or sound for the intended one
Using words that don't make sense in context
Difficulty understanding what others are saying
Written communication that's hard to make sense of
Sentence structures that don't convey a clear message
Speech made up of incomplete or unusually short sentences

Speech Therapy for Aphasia

Getting started early after a stroke or brain injury matters, since some meaningful recovery is often still possible in those early stages. Our assessment looks closely at sentence construction, word-finding, whether expressive language matches a person's age and education level, object identification, ability to answer questions, following verbal commands, and general conversational ability — all to build a clear, specific picture of where support is needed most.

A therapist shows picture cards to a woman naming each one with a smile

Therapy rebuilds words through practice and cues.

Goals of Speech Therapy for Aphasia

People with aphasia usually don't experience any real drop in their underlying intelligence or cognition — the limitation is specifically in expressing themselves the way they used to, which can be deeply frustrating both for the patient and the people around them. Part of our work is helping everyone involved understand realistic expectations, recovery potential, and the tools available to help someone communicate as fully as possible. A few things we take into account:

Occupation — therapy priorities differ depending on what a person's work demands; a singer, for instance, needs different support than someone in a more sedentary role, even though full rehabilitation remains the shared goal
Social life — we look at what support a patient already has from family, friends, caregivers, and colleagues, and can provide training and informational resources to help the people around them communicate more effectively and adjust to the condition

Older adults share coffee and laughter at an aphasia conversation group

Groups help people practice real conversation.

Our Approach to Treatment

Speech therapy for aphasia is a deeply personal process, and it works best with close, consistent interaction between the patient and their therapist. We're committed to giving every patient the attention and care that fits their age, needs, and the severity of their condition.

A retired man chats happily with his speech therapist in a sunny garden

Therapy meets you where you are.

← Back to all conditions

Aphasia and Speech Therapy