Summary and Three Objectives

SUMMARY: 

Expressive aphasia, also known as Broca's aphasia, is caused by damage to or developmental issues in anterior regions of the brain, including the left posterior inferior frontal gyrus known as Broca's area.  Expressive aphasia is characterized by a patient's inability to properly move the muscles of the tongue and mouth to produce speech. Expressive aphasia contrasts with receptive aphasia, which is characterized by a patient's inability to comprehend language.

OBJECTIVES:

1 - To describe in detail what expressive aphasia is.

2- To explain the difference between expressive aphasia and receptive aphasia.

3 - To understand that there isn't a cure for aphasia, however there are effective strategies and techniques for home treatment, information available for unaware caregivers, and of course, speech therapy from a certified Speech-Language Pathologist.

Professional Journal Articles

Speech Therapy in Aphasia

Camargo, J., Jairza, L., Luiza, M., Mauro, S., Simoes, P. (1977). Speech Therapy in Aphasia. Linguistics and Language Behavior Aspects, 35 (4), 340-345.

The speech therapy received by 15 aphasic patients was studied.  In 11 cases, aphasia was due to a cerebrovascular disease, and in 4 cases a traumatic brain injury.  Expressive aphasia was seen in 5 patients, while in the others, both receptive and expressive aphasia was seen.  While six patients started their therapy program within three months after being diagnosed with aphasia, the rest started later.  Eleven patients showed satisfactory recovery, regardless of the severity, age of the patient, or the period of time from initial diagnosis to the beginning of therapy.  Although a firm prognosis cannot be established at the beginning of therapy, speech therapy is effective in aphasic patients.  After thoroughly retesting the patients and a continuous follow-up, useful information will be taken for a prognosis.

In this article, a study was conducted to establish the effect of speech therapy in patients with expressive aphasia.  In this article, I learned that regardless of the severity, age of the patient, or the period of time from initial diagnosis to the beginning of therapy, most showed improvement and speech therapy is effective in aphasic patients.  

Dissociation between singing and speaking in expressive aphasia: The role of song familiarity

Geipel, K., Mentzel, H., Miltner, W., Schulz, A., Straube, T. (2008). Dissociation between singing and speaking in expressive aphasia: The role of song familiarity. CSA Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts, 46 (5), 1505-1512.

Despite having severe speech impairments, according to several reports, aphasic patients have the ability to sing familiar songs.  It is also said that singing might improve speech production.  However, recent studies on aphasic patients found no evidence that singing can improve word production.  This study investigated a patient affected with expressive aphasia and their ability to sing during repetition of word phrases.  This study showed an increase in the number of correctly pronounced words during singing as compared to speaking familiar lyrics.  These findings show that singing might help the production of word phrases in a least some cases of expressive aphasia.  However, the association of text and melody in long-term memory seems to be responsible for this effect.

In this article, a study was conducted to see if singing can improve word production in patients with expressive aphasia.  From this article, I learned that singing, in most cases, will increase the number of correctly pronounced words as compared to speaking familiar lyrics in patients with expressive aphasia.

Paul Broca:

Responsible for naming the Broca's convolution-the motor speech area.