Language (Aphasia) Flashcards
What is Aphasia?
- Acquired communication disorder
- Impairs a person’s ability to understand, produce and use language
- May disrupt the ability to generate and use symbol systems. Can affect written, spoken, gestural language, musical notation, telling time, mathematical operations, understanding traffic lights, warning signs, money, playing cards, board games….
Australian Aphasia Association definition:
Aphasia is a language difficulty caused by damage to the brain. People with aphasia may have difficulty with:
- Talking
- Listening (understanding what others say)
- Reading
- Writing
- Using numbers
- Using gestures
CNP of language
Cognitive-neuropsychology of language
Worrall (1999) 5 steps of therapy:
Step 1: Information Gathering and Sharing
Step 2: Collaborative Goal Setting
Step 3: Pretherapy Assessment (i.e., baselining)
Step 4: Therapy
Step 5: Reassessement
Steps are repeated in as many cycles as are required.
Laymans’ definition of ‘language’ production.
The process of message translation. To be able to understand what others are saying and put your thoughts into speech sounds, words and sentences to be understood by others.
-cohort
Conduction aphasia
Disruption to information transmission between Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas
Motor aphasia
Broca’s aphasia
Advantages to a classification system of aphasia (ie Broca’s, Wernicke’s, Anomic, Global etc)
- Diagnostics –> patient gets a label and can ‘explain’ it.
* Simple, clear and concrete.
Disdvantages to a classification system of aphasia (ie Broca’s, Wernicke’s, Anomic, Global etc)
- Not very useful for planning and providing intervention.
- Clients presenting with same kind of aphasia can have very different strengths and weaknesses –> Classifications are not very homogenous
Approaches to aphasia other than classification system?
psycholinguistic and cognitive-neuropsychological approaches
Boxes and arrows
Cognitive-neuropsychological models of cognitive processes usually involve boxes and arrows in various combinations. Boxes represent particular processing centre/type of process. Arrows represent flow of information.
Assumptions of box-and-arrow models:
- Functional modularity
- Anatomical modularity
- Universality of cognitive systems.
- Subtractivity.
Functional modularity:
assumption of box-and-arrow model in cognitive-neuropsychological approach
Modules can operate relatively independently and can thus be independently impaired.
Anatomical modularity:
assumption of box-and-arrow model in cognitive-neuropsychological approach
Modules (or groups of modules) may be localised in distinct areas of the brain.
Universality of cognitive systems:
assumption of box-and-arrow model in cognitive-neuropsychological approach
Every ‘normal’ person will share the same capacity for processing language - although their experiences will vary.