Sensory aphasia - learn to speak and understand anew

Two human centers are responsible for a person's speech abilities, which are located in the cerebral cortex.

If, for any reason, these centers are damaged, then a disease such as aphasia begins that manifests itself as a violation of speech functions.

Symptoms may differ depending on the type of aphasia observed in humans.

Types of violation

Four main types of disorder can be distinguished, although they are somewhat differentiated.

It should be noted that in some cases the symptoms are very similar and even coincide. This classification is based on what part of the brain and what consequences it causes.

So, there are 4 types of aphasia:

1. Sensory ( occurs when the center of Wernicke is affected).A person hears words and can repeat them, but does not understand their meaning);
2. Motor ( Broca's center is affected).The pronunciation suffers, the grammar of the utterance, the speech is incoherent, it is difficult for a person to switch from one word to another);
3. Sensor-driven .The global defeat of both speech centers, a person does not understand the oral speech of others and can not say anything practically himself).
4. Amnestic ( affected parieto-high region).It is difficult to name objects, although the patient understands their meaning and can pronounce this word).

The causes of the disorder

It should be noted that the causes of the defeat of the speech organs can become a variety of factors.

Here are some of them:

• stroke - this is the most common cause;
• various kinds of inflammatory processes, such as encephalitis and leukoencephalitis;
• severe injuries and head injuries;
• Alzheimer's disease and Pick's disease in the focal disease;
• complications after surgery on the cerebral cortex;
• some mental illness.

There are also certain risk factors that increase the possibility of manifestation of aphasia in any form.

These risk factors are hypertension, past ischemic strokes, as well as old age and past head injuries that are not in vain.

The severity of aphasia and its symptoms depend on many factors, such as the age of the patient, the type of disorder, and the extent of the lesion.

Symptoms and Diagnosis

Symptoms may differ in each case and depend on the type of aphasia, that is, the area of ​​the lesion.

Sensory type of disorder

A person who suffers sensory aphasia does not understand spoken language and written text. Although his ear distinguishes separate words, but their meaning for a person is incomprehensible.

It all depends on the form of the disease, that is, in the complex form of sensory aphasia, a person is not able to perform even a simple monosyllabic command, while it is easier - a person can perform monosyllabic requests, but is lost in tasks of several parts.

With sensory aphasia, a person can speak in some way, but his speech can be just a collection of words or, as they say, a dictionary crumb.

The person's own speech can be plentiful and somewhat emotional, but it can confuse concepts and objects. For example, talk about the fork, but show on the spoon.

This is called verbal paraphasia when verbal substitutions occur.

Features of motor aphasia

With motor aphasia, the main problem is the violation of the patient's speech abilities, that is, he basically understands the spoken language of other people, but his own speech is not clear.

Symptoms are a violation of the skills of reading and writing or their complete loss, as well as improper pronunciation, permutation of letters in words, replacement of some letters, others similar in sound.

In addition, it is hard for a person to switch from one word to another, and in severe forms of this type of aphasia, a person has retained only the ability to pronounce speech emboli, such as "yes-yes" or "no-no".

In any case, all the aphasics are characterized by the fact that their lexicon is extremely small and poor, because they do not use adverbs, comparisons and bright adjectives, nor do they understand proverbs, proverbs and winged expressions.

Sensoromotonic appearance is the most severe case of

. In this case, the symptoms described above are present in an acute form. A person can not express his thoughts and say anything, but also understand another person's spoken language.

This type of aphasia can be caused by total lesion of speech centers, which causes aphasia in a particularly severe form.

In this case, if there are improvements, then first of all, understanding of the oral speech of other people is restored.

Amnestic aphasia: the way it manifests

This type of aphasia is characterized by the fact that a person understands the speech of others and can in some way express his thoughts. His speech is quite informative, but the lexicon is small and extremely poor.

For patients it is characteristic to forget specific words, but they can explain their meanings. That is, such a person can not remember the word "chair", but he will explain that this is "what they are sitting on".

At the same time, a hint of the first syllable of the desired word can help such a patient.

In this case, there are also problems with reading and writing.

Diagnostic methods

What includes the diagnosis and examination of a person who began to suffer from sensory aphasia:

1. Analysis of the itself, finding out how such violations have long appeared, and what contributed to such violations;
2. The patient should examine the speech therapist , who will be able to determine what are the speech disorders, and also outline an approximate course of treatment and recovery;
3. It is necessary to undergo such procedure as electroencephalography I - you can see the electrical activity of different parts of the cortex of the brain;
4. Computer tomography and MRI - the purpose of these procedures to study the entire human brain layer by layer, in addition, you can find hemorrhages, as well as ulcers and inflammatory processes.

If to sum up, a speech therapist and a neuropsychologist work with a person who has speech disorders, which determine the degree of aphasia and can prescribe some treatment.

At the same time it is necessary to determine the primary cause of the disease and eliminate it.

This is supported by MRI and computed tomography.

What kind of treatment is needed for speech disorders?

It can be said that the treatment of aphasia of any type including sensory one consists of two important components:

• it is necessary to clarify and eliminate the primary cause that caused the appearance of speech disorders;
• various exercises and exercises with a speech therapist, which will help to restore speech.

If the cause of the failure is a tumor or a cerebral hemorrhage, then surgical intervention is necessary. It is necessary to remove the tumor or hemorrhage.

Often the cause of aphasia is increased blood pressure, which causes strokes and heart attacks.

So in this case it is important to control the pressure in preventive measures and take medications that will improve metabolism.

Besides this, it is important to have a speech therapist and a certain kind of exercise. Among doctors there is no unequivocal opinion on how to treat aphasia and what methods to use.

However, there are general tips and recommendations:

• try to attract a patient with sensory aphasia to communicate;
• give him enough time to build a sentence and express his thoughts;
• continue to communicate as if nothing happened, talk with him as before.

It should be noted that the speed of recovery of speech abilities of a person depends on his age, abilities, willpower and degree of brain damage.

What can be concluded?

Although sensory aphasia is a nuisance that can, in principle, happen to everyone, one should not lose hope.

Preventive measures can be taken: monitor blood pressure, avoid head injuries, consult a doctor if you have suspicions or become worse.

In the event of a disorder, a person does not learn to speak completely , but it is hard to take the other person's oral speech, and his own vocabulary is poor, and thoughts are inconsistent.

Nevertheless, with the help of a speech therapist and a psychologist, speech can be gradually restored, the main persistence and positive attitude.