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Willis to retire due to diagnosis
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| The recent news that action star Bruce Willis has retired from the motion picture business due to aphasia, has sparked intense interest in the condition, which affects nearly two million people. Alone in the United States. It is a neurological disorder, and aphasia occurs due to damage to parts of the brain responsible for producing or processing language. It can make it difficult for someone to read, write, and say what they mean to say. It may occur suddenly or gradually, depending on the cause. Although it appears primarily in individuals who have had a stroke, especially in the elderly, aphasia can also result from a brain tumor, infection, inflammation, head injury, or dementia that affects language-related areas of the body. the brain. The type and severity of language dysfunction depends on the exact location and extent of damaged brain tissue.
Types of aphasia
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| About 180,000 people in the United States develop aphasia each year. The nervous condition can be so severe that communication with the patient is almost impossible, or it can be very mild. It may primarily affect one aspect of language use, such as the ability to recall the names of things, the ability to put words together into sentences, or the ability to read. There are several types of the condition, and each has different symptoms. Non-fluent aphasia refers to someone who knows what they want to say, but has difficulty saying or writing what they mean. With aphasia, a person may say meaningless words or sentences and find it difficult to understand others as well. Global aphasia affects all aspects of language and is applied to patients who can produce few recognizable words and understand little or no spoken language. With aphasia, the patient will have some trouble using the correct word for things, places or events.
The first to be recognized by the doctor
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| Aphasia, which results from damage to one or more language areas in the brain, is usually first recognized by a doctor and medical team treating a person for a brain injury or disease. According to Dr. Dana Moser, director of the Communication Disorders and Disorders Program at UAMS, most individuals will have an MRI or CT scan to confirm the presence and exact location of brain damage. Usually, when aphasia is suspected, a doctor will ask a speech-language pathologist to test a person’s ability to understand and produce language, such as following commands, answering questions, and having a conversation. Moser says that in the event of aphasia, a speech-language pathologist will perform a thorough examination of the person’s communication abilities. A person’s ability to speak, socialize, understand language, read and write is assessed in detail.
Huge changes in the brain
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| After a stroke or brain injury, massive changes will occur in the brain. As a result, people with aphasia often notice a significant improvement in their communication skills in the first few months, even without treatment. In some cases, a person may recover completely without treatment. But in many cases, some aphasia remains after this initial recovery period. In these cases, speech and language therapy is used to help patients regain their ability to communicate. In addition, if a person’s aphasia is the result of a progressive neurological disease, their symptoms will worsen and they will likely begin to involve other systems, such as cognition and memory. Aphasia therapy aims to improve a person’s ability to communicate by helping him or her use his or her remaining language abilities and learn other ways of communicating, while group therapy provides the opportunity to use new communication skills in a small group.
Noise reduction
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| There are several ways you can help people with aphasia. It’s best to reduce distractions and noise, which may mean turning off the radio or TV and moving to a quieter room when trying to communicate with them. Talk to people with aphasia in adult language. Don’t make them feel like children. Don’t pretend to understand if you don’t. If the person with aphasia cannot understand you, don’t scream. Unless the person also has a hearing problem, yelling will make it more difficult to understand. It is important to make eye contact when talking to the person. Always try to keep someone with aphasia involved in conversations. But don’t pressure them too hard to understand, as this can cause even more frustration. It’s also a good idea when letting someone with a speech problem have an ID card with information on how to contact family members and how to best communicate with that person.
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