Vox(93)

Is Wernicke’s aphasia a real communication disorder?

Yes, aphasia is very real. When the human brain suffers trauma, and language faculty is impaired, it is called aphasia, from the Greek “a-,” meaning “not,” and “phanai,” meaning “speak.” There are many different manifestations of aphasia. The one I use in Vox is Wernicke’s aphasia, also called “fluent aphasia.” Instead of struggling to speak, an individual with this type of linguistic impairment will actually speak quite fluidly, although that speech can often sound like a pretty interesting sort of linguistic soup. For more information on aphasia, I’ll refer you to the excellent people at the National Aphasia Association at www.aphasia.org.