Aphasia diagnosis, recovery, and prevention

Aphasia can be diagnosed by your doctor or a speech-language pathologist (SLP). An SLP can do speech and language testing based on your symptoms. However, only a doctor can do medical testing to determine the underlying cause.

If you’ve had a stroke or brain injury, a brain scan may determine the location and severity of the injury. The brain scan will show if damage has occurred in the language centers of the brain. This information, combined with your symptoms, will allow a doctor to diagnose aphasia.

Immediately after a stroke, your medical team will be most concerned about making sure you are medically stable and physically able to be discharged. You might not receive very much information about aphasia right after your stroke. However, you should receive a referral to a speech-language pathologist (SLP). If you believe you have aphasia but did not receive a referral to an SLP, ask your doctor if you can see one.

The SLP will conduct speech and language testing and give you more information about what type of aphasia you have. The SLP will test the different areas of language: speaking, understanding, reading and writing. The SLP will be able to determine what your strengths and weaknesses are. This information helps the SLP choose therapy techniques to help you improve.

If you don’t think you have had a stroke or traumatic brain injury but experience symptoms that sound like aphasia, you should tell your doctor. Your doctor can order medical tests and also refer you to an SLP. Your family doctor, might refer you to a neurologist for more specialized care. Medical tests can confirm the diagnosis and provide additional information. There are other medical conditions that can lead to symptoms similar to those of aphasia, so determining the underlying cause is important.

It is often possible to recover from aphasia, but every person and condition is different. Some people may have a full recovery. Others may mostly recover but have a hard time thinking of the right word sometimes. Others will always have aphasia but continue to improve. Many people find they can continue to get better for years after they are diagnosed with aphasia.

If you have a stroke or brain injury, it’s likely that your aphasia will be most severe immediately after the injury. The biggest improvements usually happen in the first few months after aphasia is diagnosed. After a stroke or brain injury, your brain uses neuroplasticity to rewire itself and rebuild connections that will help your language improve.

Some improvement is called “spontaneous recovery,” meaning that the brain is healing itself on its own. This type of recovery happens the most dramatically in the first few months after a stroke. After that, improvement can continue, but it will not be as rapid.

To maximize your recovery and neuroplasticity of your brain, speech therapy can help. With continued therapy, many people can continue to see improvements for years following a stroke.

Speech therapy can also help people with aphasia who haven’t had a stroke or brain injury, such as those who have been diagnosed with Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA). Often this type of therapy will help you find ways to manage your aphasia, such as by using an AAC device or other methods to communicate.

If you have aphasia, you might be wondering if you could have done something to prevent it. There is no effective way to prevent aphasia. Aphasia is most often the result of a stroke or another brain injury.
Although there are steps you can take to reduce your risk of having a stroke (or another stroke, if you’ve already had one), there is no 100% effective way to prevent a stroke.

Some people have strokes due to reasons that are out of their control and could not have been prevented. Aphasia as the result of a stroke or brain injury cannot be prevented – it just depends on where in the brain the stroke or injury occurred.

Somewhere between 25-40% of people who have a stroke will experience aphasia following the stroke. However, the people who have strokes but do not have aphasia did not do anything differently to prevent aphasia. They simply experienced a stroke in a different part of their brain. People with aphasia most often have damage to the left side of the brain, where the brain’s language centers are for most people.
If you’d like information on reducing your risk of stroke, ask your doctor for personalized recommendations. Your doctor can talk to you about your medical history and lifestyle factors.

Common Recommendations to Prevent Stroke and Aphasia

• Exercise, according to your doctor’s recommendations
• Eat healthy, including cutting back on sodium (salt)
• If you smoke, quit
• Maintain a healthy weight

It’s a good idea to talk to your doctor or medical provider about their recommendations to prevent stroke or brain injury. You can also look at the American Stroke Association’s recommendations.