Abstract
Acquired Childhood Aphasia is a disorder that is acquired and not developmental. This disorder is transient and recovery from this disorder is often quick. Acquired aphasia can be caused by a variety of etiologies. The signs and symptoms that a person exhibits in this type of aphasia are different than other types of adult aphasias. Although this aphasia is known to be transient, children often exhibit language problems post to accident. Children often show normal recovery but later show problems with their receptive and/or expressive language. There are different assessments and treatments used for acquired aphasia in children. Therapy is an essential factor for a child with this disorder if they exhibit any type of language problems.
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This research will provide information on acquired childhood aphasia. A case study of a child with acquired childhood aphasia is also provided. Acquired childhood aphasia (ACA) as the name says is a disorder that occurs after normal development.
A person is normally developing and due to a neurological cause they acquire the disorder. Most children with acquired childhood aphasia typically develop language at the adequate milestones. Acquired childhood aphasia is usually transient and most children recover quickly. In ACA males are more likely to acquire this aphasia than females. This aphasia is a non-fluent, motor type of aphasia. In this type of aphasia the speech typically returns post-accident. In acquired childhood aphasia a mutism is usually exhibited. A mutism is when there is a suppression of spontaneous speech. The mutism usually last from a few days to a few months. This symptoms always seem to be predominate when viewed clinically after the onset. Once mutism has gone away a child seems to exhibit a period of silence. The child’s speech digresses and they tend to avoid talking and conversations. In acquired childhood aphasia common signs a child exhibits is telegraphic speech, simplified sentences, and dysarthria. Dysarthria is often associated with acquired childhood aphasia and is a big concomitant cause. Usual symptoms of acquired aphasia are problems with naming objects, word retrieval, reading and writing, and they often show hesitations when trying to speak. A person with acquired aphasia often lacks confidence when trying to speak because of all the problems …show more content…
exhibited. In the book of, Aphasia in Atypical Populations, the author’s state, “ACA can be caused by a similar range of central nervous system disorders as adult aphasia. The variety of underlying etiologies primarily includes trauma, vascular lesions, tumors, infections, and convulsive disorders. Although in earlier series (Ford & Schaffer, 1927; Smithies, 1907) aphasia and hemiplegia were frequently associated with infectious diseases, the advent of antibiotics has significantly decreased the incidence of encephalopathies form infections (Woods & Teuber, 1978) (Basso, Coppens, Lebrun)”. Closed head injuries or traumatic brain injuries (TBI) can occur in falls, vehicle accidents, sports, and in violence. A TBI causes the brain to hit the skull and creates the injury. A traumatic brain injury in acquired aphasia often effects a child’s verbal fluency, object naming, writing, and causes word and sentence repetition. A child usually has persistent language deficits after the injury. Vascular disorders is another neurological cause that can effect a child. An idiopathic childhood hemiplegia is caused when a child has had an ischemic stroke. This is a kind of syndrome results after a unilateral brain infarct from an unknown origin. Possible causes that lead to this syndrome include epilepsy, encephalitis, polioencephalitis, and venous thrombosis. A child suffering from this can exhibit the syndrome starting from a few months to about the age of 12. Females are most likely to acquire this syndrome than males. Other vascular disorders that can coincide with ACA are arteritis, moyamoya disease, and sickle cell amenia. Brain hemorrhages can also occur in ACA secondary to leukemia, sickle cell disease, or hemophilia. Brain tumors are also causes of acquired aphasia. There are different types of tumors, but the most common tumor in childhood is the cerebellar astrocytoma. This tumor affect children from the range of 5-9 years of age and is treatable. Other tumors in the posterior cranial fossa include ependymoma, supratentorial, and medulloblasotma. The tumors can effect both receptive and expressive language. This includes auditory comprehension, inability to understand complex information, and oral expression. Another secondary component to acquired aphasia is infectious disease. Infectious disease can affect the central and peripheral nervous system. Problems with infectious disease in acquired childhood aphasia depend on the type of infection and the amount of damage the infection caused. Most infections are either viral or bacterial. Infectious disease that can affect ACA are HIV/AIDS, Creutzfeldt-Jacob diseas, and herpes simplex encephalitis. Convulsive disorders are also associated with acquired aphasia in children. One of the main convulsive disorders is known as the Leandau-Kleffner syndrome. This syndrome causes a child the inability to comprehend and use language. This syndrome is also known by many as an acquired epileptic aphasia. In this syndrome a child can experience epileptic seizures. Children from the age of 2 to 13 years of age can have this syndrome and it is most commonly seen in males than females. There are a variety of assessments used to identify acquired childhood aphasia. Since acquired aphasia deals with pediatrics the assessments used for adult aphasia could not be used for assessing children. Most aphasia assessments are scaled to test adolescence to adulthood. When assessing acquired childhood aphasia a pediatrics assessment should be used. In the book of, Acquired Neurological Speech/Language Disorders in Childhood, Murdoch states, “There are a number of excellent tests of child language development that can be used in the assessment of children with acquired childhood aphasia (e.g. Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Revised (CELF-R) (Semel et al., 1987), Test of Language Development Series-2 (TOLD) (Hammill and Newcomer, 1988; Newcomer and Hammill, 1988), Preschool Language Assessment Instrument (Blank et al., 1978), Porch Index of Communicative Ability in Children (PICAC) (Porch, 1974) and the Reynell Developmental Language Scale-Revised (Reynell, 1977), plus tests which assess specific linguistic abilities (e.g. Peabody Pictures Vocabulary Test- Revised (PPVT-R) (Dunn and Dunn, 1981), Token Test for Children (DI Simone, 1978), and Test of Auditory comprehension of Language- Revised (TACL-R) (Carrow-Woolfolk, 1985) (Pg 70)”. The CELF assessment can be used to test children from the ages 5-21. The assessment can help to identify a language delay or disorder based on the scores from all subtests performed in the assessment. The TOLD test assesses mainly spoken language and the ability to understand vocabulary, word meaning, listening, and organization skills. The TOLD assessment is used for children ages 8-17 years. The preschool language assessment instrument assesses classroom demands and identifies communication difficulties. This assessment is used for children from the age of 3 to 5 years. Any of these assessments could be used to assess a child with language problems. When a child is brought to the services of a speech language pathologist it is usually because they are exhibiting symptoms of a speech or language disorder. As we know in acquired childhood aphasia a child usually exhibits telegraphic speech, word naming problems, and problems with reading or writing. The pediatric assessments given can be used to identify if the problems exhibited by the child are the concomitant symptoms of acquired childhood aphasia. Treatment for acquired childhood aphasia is speech language therapy. Most children who suffer from acquired childhood aphasia later exhibit language deficits. After an assessment is done a speech language pathologist will provide therapy based on the results that were found from the assessment. The type of injury also plays a big role in what type of therapy you will be providing. There are several characteristics one needs to consider when identifying recovery time of a child with acquired aphasia. In the book, Acquired Speech and Language Disorders, Murdoch states, “A number of different factors which may influence the recovery of language in acquired childhood aphasia have been identified by various authors. These factors include: the site of the lesion, the size and side of the lesion, the aetiology, the associated neurological disturbance, the age at onset, the type and severity of the aphasia and the presence of electroencephalographic abnormalities” (341). A Speech language pathologist should know how to treat the different etiologies that cause aphasia. Recovery time depends on how severe the damage is and how effective therapy is to the client. The research on Acquired childhood aphasia gave me information on every aspect of the disorder and how one could help a person with this disorder.
It helped inform me on how to identify acquired childhood aphasia and how to treat it. My client is Michelle Elizabeth Tanner a 9 year, 4 month old Caucasian female. She resides with her father Daniel Tanner, two older sisters, an uncle, and a family friend. MT’s birth was normal with no complications and has developed overall good health. There are no previous family history of any speech or hearing impediments. MT is in the third grade and attends Trautmann elementary school. Her primary language is English. Michelle suffered a traumatic brain injury on March 28th after she fell off from riding her horse. MT was taken to Doctors hospital and had a loss of conscious. She couldn’t recognize who her family was and what had happened to her. Within an hour she began to gain conscious. After a week or normal recovery she began to exhibit problems when she would name objects. MT’s father said that she would hesitate when speaking and she would try to name objects but instead would name a different object. MT showed signs of circumlocution. She would have difficulty in trying to put a word to a desired object. She would also repeat words and sentences over and over. MT’s father noticed that she stopped talking because she had trouble expressing herself. She would stay in her room and avoid conversations. MT’s dad took her back to the
neurologist and she referred her to a speech language pathologist. MT was referred to the Communications Disorder Center by Dr. Shepherd for an evaluation. MT was first evaluated and then assessed by a speech language pathologist using the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals- Fourth Edition (CELF-4). The problems she was exhibiting were with her language and this assessment is used to identify a receptive or expressive language disorder. The symptoms she was exhibiting are characteristics that a child with acquired aphasia would exhibit. The CELF assessment can help us assess the different sections of language and identify what the client is having difficulty in. After conducting the assessment the results indicated that she has a very-low range in her expressive language and was borderline in her receptive language. When MT was tested in the section of expressive vocabulary she would respond incorrectly. She exhibited circumlocution thought the expressive portion of the assessment. She qualified from language therapy based on the results of her assessment. The speech language pathologist will assist her with her expressive and receptive language. The Speech language pathologist used the approach of word retrieval cueing strategies to help the client with her expressive skills. The SLP used the goal of naming objects with maximum cues. MT was recommended to attend therapy twice a week for thirty minute session. Her therapy should help her with her expressive language. Recovery will be on a day to day therapy basis. Reference Coppens, P., Lebrun, Y., & Basso, A. (1998). Aphasia in atypical populations. Mahwah, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Fabbro, F., & International Association of Logopedics and, P. (2004). Neurogenix Language Disorders in Children. Amsterdam: Elsevier. Murdoch, B. E. (1990). Acquired neurological speech/language disorders in childhood. London: Taylor & Francis. Murdoch, B. E. (2010). Acquired speech and language disorders: A neuroanatomical and functional neurological approach. Chichester, U.K: Wiley-Blackwell. Rapin, I. (1995). Acquired aphasia in children. Journal of Child Neurology, 10(4), 267-270.
We talked about Wernickes aphasia also known as fluent aphasia which causes comprehension difficulties. For example, people can talk in sentences that do not have any meaning and say words that don't make any sense. We also talked about Brocas aphasia also known as non-fluent aphasia which causes people to have a hard time with direction and prepositions. People with Brocas aphasia have trouble using connecting words for their sentences and understanding the order of the words in a...
CAS is a very specific disorder with a very specific profile, and is thus different from “typical” speech sound disorders. The hypothesis of CAS in ASD (the CAS-ASD hypothesis) is that “CAS contributes to the inappropriate speech, prosody, and/or voice features reported in some children and adults with verbal ASD” (Shriberg et al., 2011, p. 405). For this to be true, the speech, prosody, and voice findings in children with ASD must not only be unusual or disordered, but they must also fit into the particular profile of CAS.
I intend to explore the effects of a parietal brain injury from the perspective of a neuropsychologist; ranging from types of tests that are employed when trying to determine the extent of the damage, to gaining an understanding of how this damage will affect the rest of the brain and/or the body. I will also explore the effects of a brain injury from the perspective of the family members, and their experiences with the changes that occur during the rehabilitation process. According to The Neuropsychology Center, “neuropsychological assessment is a systematic clinical diagnostic procedure used to determine the extent of any possible behavioral deficits following diagnosed or suspected brain injury”(www.neuropsych.com). As mentioned previously, a brain injury can be the result of many types of injuries or disorders, thus a broad range of assessment procedures have been developed to encompass these possibilities.
Hegde, M. N. (2001). Pocketguide to treatment in speech-language pathology. (2nd ed., pp. 193-203). San Diego, CA: Singular Thomson Learning.
The long disputed debate about the primary cause of dyslexia is still very much alive in the field of psychology. Dyslexia is commonly characterized as a reading and writing impairment that affects around 5% of the global population. The disorder has frequently been hypothesized to be the result of various sensory malfunctions. For over a decade, studies have made major contributions to the disorder's etiology; however, scientists are still unclear of its specific causal. Initially, dyslexia was thought to be a reading disorder in children and adults (1). Later it was suggested to consist of both a visual and writing component, therefore characterizing it as more of a learning disability which affected people of normal intelligence's ability to perform to their fullest potential (5). In the current research, cognitive and biological perspectives have often been developed independently of one another failing to recognize their respective positions within the disorder's etiology.
Salonen, L. (2013). L. S. Vygotsky 's psychology and theory of learning applied to the rehabilitation of aphasia: A developmental and systemic view. Aphasiology, 27(5), 615-635. doi:10.
Aphasia can be defined as a disorder that is caused by damage to parts of the brain that are responsible for language (“Aphasia” n.p.). Wernicke’s aphasia is a type of fluent aphasia (with the other type being nonfluent). It is named after Carl Wernicke who described the disorder as “an amnesiac disorder characterized by fluent but disordered speech, with a similar disorder in writing, and impaired understanding of oral speech and reading” (“Wernicke’s” n.p.). Wernicke’s aphasia can also be known as sensory aphasia, fluent aphasia, or receptive aphasia. It is a type of aphasia that is caused by damage to Wernicke’s area in the brain, in the posterior part of the temporal lobe of the left hemisphere. This area of the brain contains motor neurons responsible for the understanding of spoken language and is believed to be the receptive language center (“Rogers” n.p.). Wernicke’s aphasia can be most efficiently defined as a fluent language disorder commonly caused by strokes and characterized by difficulty comprehending spoken language and producing meaningful speech and writing which is both assessable by an SLP and treatable by a variety of methods.
The article opens up with an explanation as to what the method of coaching is. According to Holland, “life coaching”, as it is called, is considered to be a variant of typical counseling. Coaching is in its early stages (as of 2007), yet it is used in developments and processes that are designed to help individuals with aphasia live their lives to the fullest and improve their quality of life. The work of Goldsmith (an earlier mentioned practitioner) is the author’s main interest. Goldsmith’s approach involves what one may call a “Buddhist” way of thinking; meaning change is seen as a positive thing. Speech-language pathologists place their trust in their client’s ability to take on new skills, arrange their new language capabilities, and acquire new problem-solving tactics.
Aphasia is an acquired communication disorder that disrupts communication and it can deteriorate a person’s coping potential and quality of life (Parr, 2001) which involve damage to the parts of brain that contain language (ASHA, 2013). Statistics from United States indicated around 25-40% of stroke survivors developed aphasia (National Association of Aphasia, NAA, 2013). Aphasia will affect both the ability to produce or comprehend spoken language and written language while intelligence is left intact (NAA, 2013). In US, it is found that the most common cause of aphasia is stroke (85%) and others including Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), brain tumor or other degenerative diseases (NAA, 2013).
Sarah* (name changed) is a four-year-old child who was removed from her home in Chicago, Illinois, by Child Protective Services at the age of three after neighbors called the police for hearing screaming from the house. Sarah’s mother used drugs and alcohol throughout her pregnancy, so she was born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). Once Sarah was born, her mother continued her drug use instead of treating her addiction. Because of her FAS, Sarah developed differently than other children her age. She is much smaller than the average four-year-old child, and has typical facial features of a child with FAS, including a thin upper lip, flat philtrum, and small eyes. Because of the circumstances under which Child Protective Services found Sarah, they suspect she was neglected for the majority of her life.
"My most valuable tool is words, the words I can now use only with difficulty. My voice is debilitated - mute, a prisoner of a communication system damaged by a stroke that has robbed me of language," stated A. H. Raskins, one of approximately one million people in the United States who suffer from aphasia (1), a disorder which limits the comprehension and expression of language. It is an acquired impairment due to brain injury in the left cerebral hemisphere. The most common cause of aphasia is a stroke, but other causes are brain tumors, head injury, or other neuralgic illnesses. Of the estimated 400,000 strokes which occur a year, approximately 80,000 of those patients develop some form of aphasia (2). Another important observation is that within the United States, there are twice as many people with aphasia as there are individuals with Parkinson's disease (2). Yet, what is so astounding is the lack of public awareness about aphasia. Aphasia attacks an intricate part of a person's daily life - the simple act of communication and sharing. The disbursement of such a tool deprives an individual of education learned through their life, often leaving the ill fated feeling hopeless and alone. In considering the effects of aphasia, a deeper analysis of the two most common forms of aphasia will be examined: Broca's aphasia and Wernicke's aphasia. While both forms occur usually as a result of a stroke in the left hemisphere of the brain, their particular site of impairment produces different side effects in an individual's comprehension and speech. These regions have been further studied through experimental researches such as positron emission tomography (PET). Moreover, although there is currently no cure for the disorder, there are treatments and certain guidelines to follow when encountering an aphasic.
There comes a time in our life when we know what we want to say, but it does not come out the way we thought it would. Such as being worried about reading out loud in class, going up to an employee in a fast food restaurant to order a simple meal, or making a presentation in class can be terrifying for most individuals with an articulation disorder. An articulation disorder consist of having difficulties producing sounds, substituting sounds, leaving out letters in a word, or adding or changing letters in a word. In most cases when individuals have trouble articulating words he/she might have problems with the main articulators which include: the jaw, lips, teeth, tongue, velum, alveolar ridge, and hard/soft palate. These articulators play
Language Development in Children Language is a multifaceted instrument used to communicate an unbelievable number of different things. Primary categories are information, direction, emotion, and ceremony. While information and direction define cognitive meaning, emotional language expresses emotional meaning. Ceremonial language is mostly engaged with emotions, but at some level information and direction collection may be used to define a deeper meaning and purpose. There is perhaps nothing more amazing than the surfacing of language in children.
In this world, humans and animals alike have come to communicate by using various mechanisms. Humans have advanced themselves beyond other organisms by using language, or a set of codes and symbols, in order to express themselves to others. Language has brought about a means to create new thoughts, to explore, and to analyze our everyday surroundings. It has also enabled us to retain past memories and to look deep into the advances for the future. However, for some individuals, this tool for communication has been plagued by a language and speech disorders, such as aphasia. Aphasia is the loss of the ability to speak or understand speech or written language. It is often detected at an early age, and contributes to the general class of speech and language disorders affecting "5% of school aged children" (1) . Aphasia is classified into three categories. The main two are receptive or sensory aphasia and expressive or motor aphasia. Receptive aphasia affects the input side and "the ability to understand spoken or written language may be partially or totally lost" (1) . Those with expressive aphasia "can speak but not find certain words or names, or may be totally unable to communicate verbally or by writing" (1) . For a majority of affected individuals, there is a combination of the two. The third type is conduction aphasia. This "involves disruption of transmission between the sensory and motor ends of the circuit" (1) . Here, individuals are able to produce speech despite the lack of connections to the input side. It seems that the ability to speak has a lot to do with your surroundings and how much emphasis was placed on developing this skill during the first few years after birth. Afterall, it's known that the first few years are critical because this is the time when the brain is "plastic" and is rapidly changing and being molded. By the time that adolescence is reached, the brain has become "less plastic". In this paper, I would like to explore theories proposed to try to understand the origins of this impairment.
Communication is very crucial in life, especially in education. Whether it be delivering a message or receiving information, without the ability to communicate learning can be extremely difficult. Students with speech and language disorders may have “trouble producing speech sounds, using spoken language to communicate, or understanding what other people say” (Turkington, p10, 2003) Each of these problems can create major setbacks in the classroom. Articulation, expression and reception are all essential components for communication. If a student has an issue with articulation, they most likely then have difficulty speaking clearly and at a normal rate (Turkington, 2003). When they produce words, they may omit, substitute, or even distort sounds, hindering their ability to talk. Students who lack in ways of expression have problems explaining what they are thinking and feeling because they do not understand certain parts of language. As with all types of learning disabilities, the severity can range. Two extreme cases of expression disorders are dysphasia and aphasia, in which there is partial to no communication at all (Greene, 435, 2002). Individuals can also have a receptive disorder, in which they do not fully comprehend and understand information that is being given to them. They can experience problems making sense of things. “Children may hear or see a word but not be able to understand its meaning” (National Institutes of Health, 1993, p1). Whether children have difficulty articulating speech, expressing words, receiving information, or a combination of the three, there is no doubt that the tasks given to them in school cause frustration. These children experience anxiety when...