Aphasia

• "Aphasia" refers to an acquired language impairment (usually resulting from a left-hemisphere stroke) that can affect both language understanding and language production (e.g. speech). Stroke patients that acquire aphasia often have trouble finding the words to express themselves (anomia), speaking spontaneously, forming grammatical sentences, and producing coherent, meaningful phrases. Aphasia has little to do with "intellect," but instead indicates a severe language disorder. A licensed speech pathologist (speech therapist) can implement effective measures to improve your (or a friend's/relative's) ability to use expressive language.
  
  

Apraxia of Speech

• Apraxia of speech may also result from a clogged artery in the brain (stroke). Apraxia of speech (AOS), unlike aphasia, is not a "language" disorder. Instead, AOS refers to a disorder of the brain that affects the motor control of speech. If you (or a loved one) have suffered a stroke, you (or they) may not exhibit signs of aphasia, but still present significant difficulty producing speech sounds (phonemes). A speech therapist can help you or your loved one to improve sound production in the relevant language. This may be a tedious, but extremely rewarding task to re-learn these sounds.
  
  

Dysarthria

• Strokes may also cause a condition called dysarthria which, like AOS, results in difficulty articulating speech sounds. The main difference between the two is that AOS is a brain condition that affects the ability to plan speech movements. In a patient with dysarthria, however, speech motor planning may be completely intact, but a significant weakness of the speech articulators (tongue, lips, jaw, etc.) compromise speech. Dysarthria can produce speech that sounds "half-pronounced," breathy or warbled. Speech therapists, as with aphasia and AOS, can effectively improve you or your loved one's speech articulation strength.