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What is aphasia?
Aphasia is a loss of the ability to produce and/or comprehend language, due to injury to brain areas specialized for these functions. It is not a result of deficits in sensory, intellect, or psychiatric functioning. It is also not muscle weakness or a cognitive disorder.

Depending on the area and extent of the damage, someone suffering from aphasia may be able to speak but not write, or vice versa, or display any of a wide variety of other deficiencies in language comprehension and production, such as being able to sing but not speak. Aphasia may co-occur with speech disorders such as dysarthria (poor articulation) or apraxia of speech (impaired ability to coordinate the sequential, articulatory movements necessary to generate speech sounds), which also result from brain damage.

Treating aphasia
In general, treatment strives to improve a person’s ability to communicate. The most effective treatment begins early in the recovery process and is maintained consistently over time. Major factors that influence the amount of improvement include the cause of the brain damage, the area of the brain that was damaged, the extent of the injury, and the person’s general health. Additional factors include motivation, handedness, and educational level.

In some instances an individual will completely recover from aphasia without treatment. This type of “spontaneous recovery” usually occurs following a transient ischemic attack (TIA), a kind of stroke in which the blood flow to the brain is temporarily interrupted but quickly restored. In these circumstances, language abilities may return in a few hours or a few days. For most cases of aphasia, however, language recovery is not as quick or as complete. While many individuals with aphasia also experience a period of partial spontaneous recovery (in which some language abilities return over a period of a few days to a month after the brain injury), some amount of aphasia typically remains. In these instances, speech-language therapy is often helpful. Recovery usually continues over a 2-year period.

Aphasia therapy focuses on helping the person to use remaining abilities, to restore language abilities as much as possible, to compensate for language problems, and to learn other methods of communicating. Treatment may be offered in individual or group settings. Individual therapy focuses on the specific needs of the person. Group therapy offers the opportunity to use new communication skills in a comfortable setting. In addition, stroke clubs can help the individual and his or her family adjusts to the life changes that accompany stroke and aphasia. Family involvement is often a crucial component of aphasia treatment so that family members can learn the best way to communicate with their loved one. They must never forget that although their loved one can hardly express him/herself, he feels and thinks just as he/she did before the stroke. Thus, one must not underestimate the patient given it could hurt his feelings and make him feel even lonelier. Inside, the patient is the same as the one you loved before: consider it when talking to him.

Communicating with your dear one
If one of your friends or family member is struck with aphasia, here are some tips you may use to facilitate communication:

• Simplify language by using short, uncomplicated sentences.
• Repeat the content words or write down key words to clarify meaning as needed.
• Maintain a natural conversational manner appropriate for an adult.
• Minimize distractions, such as a blaring radio, whenever possible.
• Include the person with aphasia in conversations.
• Ask for and value the opinion of the person with aphasia, especially regarding family matters.
• Encourage any type of communication, whether it is speech, gesture, pointing, or drawing.
• Avoid correcting the individual’s speech.
• Allow the individual plenty of time to talk.
• Help the individual become involved outside the home. Seek out support groups such as stroke clubs.

Sources:
Wikipedia
Medicinet.com
National aphasia association