More About Aphasia
Understanding Aphasia
What it is, what it isn't, and why communication tools like ExpressAgain matter.
What Is Aphasia?
Aphasia is a language disorder that affects a person's ability to speak, understand speech, read, or write. It's most often caused by stroke, but can also result from brain injury, tumors, or progressive neurological conditions. Aphasia affects language, not intelligence.
Explore Aphasia
Answers to the questions people ask most
If trouble speaking or understanding starts suddenly, call 911. It can be a sign of a stroke, even if it goes away. Note the time it started. Learn the stroke signs
- What is aphasia?The meaning of aphasia, its medical definition, and what the inability to speak is called.
- Aphasia vs. dysphasiaTwo words for one language disorder, and why dysphagia (swallowing) is something else.
- Types of aphasiaBroca's, Wernicke's and global aphasia, plus anomic, conduction, transcortical and primary progressive aphasia.
- Aphasia causesStroke, head injury, tumors, infections and progressive conditions, and why sudden changes are an emergency.
- Sudden difficulty finding wordsWhen word-finding trouble starts suddenly, call 911. What it can mean, and when slower changes need a doctor.
- Can aphasia be cured?Recovery, speech-language therapy and what to expect, including primary progressive aphasia.
- Can you be born with aphasia?Acquired aphasia vs. developmental language disorder, and what to do if a child's language worries you.
- Sick and can't talkVoice loss from a cold, COVID-19 or laryngitis vs. a language problem, and when it is an emergency.
By the Numbers
About 2 million Americans live with aphasia.
About 100,000 to 180,000 Americans acquire aphasia each year; at the high end, that is about 490 people every day. Stroke is the leading cause: about 795,000 strokes happen in the United States each year, 610,000 of them first strokes and 185,000 repeat strokes.
| Aphasia statistic | Estimate |
|---|---|
| Americans currently living with aphasia | About 2 million |
| Americans who acquire aphasia each year | About 100,000 to 180,000 |
| Strokes that result in aphasia (ASHA's range) | About 25% to 50% |
| Stroke survivors with aphasia (NIH and clinical reviews) | About 25% to 40%, or about 1 in 3 |
| People with aphasia at the time of a stroke | About 38% |
| Stroke survivors who still have aphasia after three months | About 25% |
The numbers differ because some studies measure language loss right after a stroke and others measure aphasia that lasts several months. Rates also vary with how severe the stroke was, age, the type of stroke, how aphasia was diagnosed, and whether mild language difficulties were counted. The 2 million estimate includes aphasia from every cause, not only stroke.
Clearing Up Misconceptions
What Aphasia Is Not
Types of Aphasia
Aphasia looks different for different people.
Not everyone with aphasia is unable to speak. Aphasia is a spectrum.
Mild or anomic
The person speaks but struggles to find names or specific words.
Expressive (Broca's)
The person understands much of what is said but has difficulty forming words or sentences.
Receptive (Wernicke's)
The person can speak but may have difficulty understanding speech, or recognizing that their words do not make sense.
Global
Severe difficulty speaking, understanding, reading and writing. This is closest to someone who can no longer communicate out loud.
Practical Guidance
How to Communicate With Someone Who Has Aphasia
Not Only Aphasia
Other conditions that take speech away
Some people who cannot speak after a stroke do not have aphasia, or have aphasia together with another condition.
| Condition | What is affected |
|---|---|
| Aphasia | Understanding and using language |
| Apraxia of speech | Planning the mouth movements needed to speak |
| Dysarthria | The muscle strength and coordination needed for clear speech |
| Cognitive communication disorder | Attention, memory, organization, reasoning and conversation |
| Voice impairment | Producing a voice that can be heard or kept up |
The difference matters. One person may know exactly what they want to say but be unable to coordinate the movements of speech; another may produce speech but have trouble finding or understanding words.
Causes beyond stroke
- Stroke (the leading cause)
- Traumatic brain injury
- Brain tumors
- Brain infections
- Alzheimer's disease
- Frontotemporal dementia
- Primary progressive aphasia
- Other injuries to the brain's language areas
After a brain injury: what ExpressAgain does when the words are stuck.
ExpressAgain is also for
Anyone whose condition gets in the way of saying what they need: pain, symptoms, preferences, consent or a change in how they feel.
- People with apraxia of speech or dysarthria
- People with a cognitive communication disorder or language decline from dementia
- People recovering from a traumatic brain injury
- Patients who cannot rely on speech in the hospital, on a breathing tube or during recovery
- The families, speech-language pathologists, doctors, nurses, therapists and professionals in the home who need to understand them
Searching for an AAC app? What ExpressAgain does as augmentative and alternative communication.
Sources: National Aphasia Association; American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Aphasia Practice Portal; NIH, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders; CDC, Stroke Facts; StatPearls, Aphasia; Flowers et al., systematic review. The 38% and three-month figures are from Pedersen et al., 1995, as reported by the National Aphasia Association.
Why We Built ExpressAgain Around This
Because comprehension, memory, and personality are so often preserved in aphasia, the most effective tool lets people recognize and select the right words rather than create new language from scratch.
If someone you love has aphasia, you're not alone.
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