Types of Aphasia

The three most common types of Aphasia are:

• Broca's Aphasia - This is a form of Aphasia in which speech is severely reduced and is limited mainly to short utterances, of less than four words. Vocabulary is limited in people with Broca's Aphasia, and their formation of sounds is often clumsy. The person may understand speech relatively well and be able to read, but be limited in writing. Broca's Aphasia is often referred to as 'non fluent Aphasia' because of the halting and effortful quality of speech.

• Wernicke's Aphasia - In this form of Aphasia the ability to grasp the meaning of spoken words is chiefly impaired, while the ease of producing connected speech is not much affected. Therefore, Wernicke's Aphasia is referred to as a 'fluent Aphasia'. However, speech is far from normal. Sentences do not hang together and irrelevant words intrude - sometimes to the point of jargon, in severe cases. Reading and writing are often severely impaired.

• Anomic Aphasia - This form of Aphasia is an inability to supply the words for the very things the person wants to talk about - particularly the significant nouns and verbs. As a result their speech, while fluent in grammatical form, is full of vague expressions of frustration. They understand speech well, and in most cases, read adequately. Difficulty finding words is as evident in writing as in speech.