aphasic:
(plural: ‘aphasics‘; pronunciation: the letters ‘pha’ are said with a ‘fa’ sound as in “fate or father”)
a person suffering from partial or total loss of the ability to speak or to understand speech, usually caused by some damage to the brain, probably in an accident, from a fall or after a stroke,
Research has shown that some aphasics are capable of identifying a lie from a true statement, i.e. though they cannot speak or understand words of their own mother tongue properly, they are able to recognise a speaker’s false statements just by looking at the speaker’s facial movements (from the speaker’s changing expressions)!
There are different kinds of aphasia and an aphasic of a particular kind may be treated better and quicker than the one of another kind.
According to Jean Gordon, PhD, an assistant professor and speech-language pathologist in the Wendell Johnson Speech and Hearing Center at The University of Iowa, how a person is affected by aphasia depends on what part of the brain has sustained damage. “If the front part of the left hemisphere is affected, speech tends to be non-fluent. That is, there are frequent pauses and sentence fragments, and it is a struggle to get words or sounds out. Sometimes sentences sound like a telegram, just strings of single words. “On the other hand, if the back part of the left hemisphere is damaged, speech is usually more fluent and sentences are grammatical, but with lots of errors, which can be real words (like calling a table a ‘chair’) or made-up words. It can even sound like an aphasic speaker is speaking a foreign language. Most people with aphasia have a lot of difficulty remembering words,” she says. For an interesting article on the good side of being an aphasic, please click here.
About the Author:BC Kumar
BC Kumar, an English Language Teacher, taught in numerous countries including Ethiopia, Oman and India, shares his knowledge and passion for the English Language. Disclaimer: This is a free educational website and all content has been compiled by the author. All copyrights to images and videos belong to their respective owners.
