Wernicke’s aphasia: what is it?

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Wernicke’s aphasia is a type of communication disorder, or aphasia, that interferes with a patient’s ability to express themselves clearly. This condition occurs when the temporal lobe of the brain is damaged due to a stroke, tumor, or traumatic brain injury. Healthcare professionals treat Wernicke’s aphasia with speech therapy.

Patients with aphasia have difficulty understanding written or spoken language and may have difficulty expressing themselves well enough for others to understand. There are different types of aphasia. These disorders are classified as non-fluent or fluent.

Patients with nonfluent aphasia have difficulty speaking. Some people who have non-fluent aphasia can only use a few words and others can’t speak at all or can’t understand others, depending on which area of ​​the brain is damaged. People who have fluent aphasia can talk, but have a lot of trouble understanding conversations. Wernicke’s aphasia is classified as a type of fluent aphasia.

People who have Wernicke’s aphasia don’t always make sense when they speak. They add syllables to words, insert gibberish or words that don’t apply to the topic, and use long, rambling sentences. They aren’t necessarily aware that their speech is different from other people’s speech patterns, but they often have trouble understanding what other people are saying.

Some individuals who have this disorder speak rapidly and interrupt others. Most sufferers tend to have relatively normal grammar and can still use complex grammatical structures, but their sentences lack meaning. Many patients substitute related words for other words, such as saying “chair” for “table”; others substitute letters or sounds in familiar words, like saying “hish” for “fish.”

This disturbance could also extend to the patient’s handwriting. People who have Wernicke’s aphasia usually don’t suffer from motor coordination problems and are able to perform manual skills such as writing, but their writing often resembles their speech. They may also have trouble reading, depending on which areas of the brain are damaged.
A neurologist or speech therapist diagnoses Wernicke’s aphasia by talking to the patient and asking him a series of questions. She might also give the patient a set of commands to follow or ask the person to name items. The healthcare professional determines the severity of the condition based on the patient’s responses.

Patients who have Wernicke’s aphasia have a poor prognosis for rehabilitation. Speech therapists work with patients to improve their language skills. Patients also practice communicating with others using nonverbal forms of communication, such as facial signals and hand signals.

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