Aphasia

Clinical Assessment

• Fluency, based on rate of speech
  • Fluent vs. non-fluent
  • Broca's: slow and paraphasic errors
• Repetition
  • "1, 2, 3, 4"
  • Sing Happy Birthday
  • "No ifs, ands, or bots"
  • "The president lives in Washington"
• Naming, including low-frequency words
• Comprehension
  • Use only verbal clues, not physical cues
  • "Touch your nose, close your eyes"
  • "Point to the door"
  • "Do you put your shoes on before your socks?"
  • "Does it snow in summer?"
  • "A lion and tiger are in a fight; the lion killed the tiger. Which is dead?"
• Reading and writing
  • Aphasis is a defect in language processing, not in speech
• Paraphasic errors only occur in aphasia

Classification

• Broca: nonfluent, poor repitition, poor naming, normal comprehension, poor writing normal reading, +/-hemiplegia
• Wernicke: fluent, word salad, paraphasias, poor naming, poor comprehension, poor readinga nd writing, usually spares motor function
• Global: both of above
• Conduction: fluent, poor repetition, poor naming, normal comprehension
• Transcortical motor or sensory: spares repetition