Communication Disorders

Question 1

Explain Aphasia

Answer 1

Acquired neurological impairment of processing for receptive and/or expressive language

typically a result of TI, CVA, head trauma, Tumor or infection

Question 2

T or F: 95% of Right-handed persons and 66% of left-handed persons are left hemisphere dominant for language

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Describe the Prognosis for Aphasia

Answer 3

Depended on the individual patient, location, and extent of the lesion.

Typically the more sudden the onset of damage (acute CVA), the higher extent of aphasia can be expected

These are often associated with poor Px: preservation of speech, severe auditory comprehension impairments, unreliable yes/no answers, and the use of empty speech w/o recognition of impairments

Question 4

Fluent aphasia typically involves what structures?

Answer 4

Involves Temporal lobe, Wernicke’s area or regions of parietal lobe

Question 5

Characteristics of Fluent Aphasia

Answer 5

• Word output and speech production are functional
• Prosody is acceptable, but empty speech/jargon
• Speech lacks any substance, use of paraphasias
• Use of neologisms (substitution within a word that is so severe it makes the word unrecognizable)

Question 6

Non-fluent Aphasia frequently involves what structures?

Answer 6

Frontal lobe (anterior speech center) of the dominant hemisphere is affected

Question 7

Characteristics of Non-Fluent Aphasia

Answer 7

• Poor word output and dysprosium speech (impairment in the rhythm and inflection of speech)
• Poor articulation and increased effort for speech
• COntent is present, but impaired syntactical words

Question 8

What are the types of Fluent Aphasia?

Answer 8

1. Wernicke’s Aphasia

2. Conduction Aphasia

Question 9

Where is the lesion in Wernicke’s Aphasia

Answer 9

Lesion in the posterior region of superior Temporal gyrus

Question 10

Wernicke’s Aphasia characteristics

Answer 10

• Known as receptive aphasia
• Comprehension (reading/auditory) impaired
• Good articulation, use of paraphasias
• Impaired writing
• Poor naming ability
• Motor impairment not typical due to the distance from Wernicke’s area to motor cortex

Question 11

Where is the lesion in Conduction Aphasia

Answer 11

Supramarginal gyrus, arcuate fasciculus

Question 12

Characteristics of Conduction Aphasia

Answer 12

• severe impairment with relation
• intact fluency, good comprehension
• speech interrupted by word finding difficulties
• reading intact, writing impaired

Question 13

What are the types of Non-fluent Aphasia

Answer 13

Broca’s Aphasia and Global Aphasia

Question 14

What is a Broca’s lesion located?

Answer 14

3rd convolution of frontal lobe

Question 15

Characteristics of Broca’s Lesion?

Answer 15

• Also known as expressive aphasia
• Most common form of aphasia
• intact auditory and reading comprehension
• Impaired repetition and naming skills
• frustration with language skill errors
• Paraphasias are common
• Motor impairment typical due to proximity of Broca’s area to the motor cortex

Question 16

Where is the lesion of Global Aphasia located?

Answer 16

Frontal, temporal, parietal lobes

Question 17

Charateristics of Global Aphasia

Answer 17

• Comprehension (reading/auditory) is severely impaired
• Impaired naming, writing, repetition skills
• May involuntarily verbalize, usually without correct context
• May use nonverbal skills for communication

Question 18

What is verbal apraxia?

Answer 18

Non-dysarthric and non-Aphasic impairment of prosody and articulation of speech

Question 19

Characteristics of Verbal Apraxia

Answer 19

• Verbal expression impaired secondary to deficits in motor planning
• pt is unable to initiate learned movement (articulation of speech) even though they understand the task

Question 20

Where is the lesion located in verbal aphasia ?

Answer 20

Left frontal lobe adjacent to Broca’s area

Question 21

Describe dysarthria

Answer 21

Motor disorder of speech that is caused by an UMN lesion that affects the muscles that are used to articulate words and sounds

*slurred speech and may also be an effect on respiratory or phonatory systems due to weakness