aphasia communication tips
4 minute read
strategies for communicating with those who experience aphasia are important to allow patients to interact in everyday life. getty
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aphasia is a language disorder, caused by damage to the area of the brain responsible for language use and comprehension, including talking, listening, and understanding, reading, and writing. most often caused by a stroke, aphasia can also be a result of other forms of brain trauma.
“as a society, we understand physical accessibility. we have ramps, we have handrails. but we really don’t really know what to do when people have a communication difficulty,” says anne carey, director of speech-language pathology at speech-language & audiology canada. “… i’ve seen this, [where] a person has aphasia and [the person they’re trying to communicate with] immediately just start asking questions to the partner and just totally divert their attention to the other person.
“… it would be pretty unnerving if someone came to you and just started talking to your partner right away and just ignored you. but that happens because people don’t know, and they feel uncomfortable.”
aphasia affects more people than parkinson’s disease
as the canadian population continues to age, the incidence of strokes and the accompanying side effects are expected to rise. aphasia already affects 166,000 to 385,000 people in canada according to aphasia friendly canada — more people than parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy, or muscular dystrophy.
“the language that you use is really impactful for individuals,” says jessica regan senior diversity, equity and inclusion advisor at bloom, an hr consultancy. “when you’re not aware that there are so many folks that are experiencing this, you might be … feeling a rush to get the conversation going.”
communicating with someone who has aphasia will take time, according to a training module offered by the aphasia friendly canada, an initiative by the university of windsor. if you’re connecting with the person for the first time, it’s not uncommon for misunderstandings to arise. for this reason, the training recommends you go slow and take multiple opportunities to verify what you’ve said and understood. fight the urge to fill every silence and let the person you are speaking to take their time to formulate their answer.
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strategies for communicating with those who experience aphasia are important to allow patients to interact in everyday life, but is especially important in health-care settings. here, critical choices must be made, like determining the patient’s ability to understand and make decisions for their own health and well-being.
how to communicate with someone who has aphasia
when communicating with someone who has aphasia, it’s important to remember you are talking to an equally competent adult, carey says. keeping the tone and volume of your voice at an appropriate level (so to not shout at the other person or talk to them like a child) is important to building an equal relationship.
“a lot of people who have aphasia, they know more than they can say, and their aphasia can mask their intelligence,” she says.
recognizing if you are having trouble communicating with the other person or understanding them and acknowledging that is also key to creating a relationship where you’re both contributing to the conversation.
when communicating with someone who has aphasia, aphasia friendly canada recommends using the acronym asc: offer alternative methods to answer, use slower pacing, and use close-ended questions.
visual guides can help people with aphasia communicate
the key is to have more than one modality for communication. alternative methods of communication include providing markers and blank paper to write on, visual guides, and letter/number charts.
carey also recommends using age-appropriate visual guides (i.e., not images from a children’s book) — a google image search can usually yield a host of useful images. in turn, the person you’re chatting with may also want to show you a photo or diagram on their phone or tablet.
gesturing with your hands, pointing at object you are speaking about can also be useful. keywording — writing down the key words you are using (preferably in large block letters on a sheet of white paper) — can also be beneficial. for example, if you are asking where their car is, writing down where car may be useful.
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use close-ended questions
close-ended — yes/no, or this/that — questions may also be more useful to communicate. it may take a series of yes/no questions to arrive at the answer, rather than a single open-ended question.
throughout the conversation, consistently checking in is important to verify what you’ve understood and said. this can help you understand if anything’s gone off course.
take breaks, try multiple approaches
there is no one sized-fits-all approach to speaking with someone who has aphasia. as with anyone else, communication styles vary, so it may take time to understand how the two of you can connect.
if you feel you or the person you are speaking to are starting to get tired or frustrated, carey says it’s best to take a break and come back to the conversation at another time. building relationships based on mutual understanding doesn’t always happen instantly, and it’s important to give yourselves the best opportunity to make the connection work.
readers interested in learning more about communicating with someone who has aphasia can check out the living with aphasia profiles on sac canada, aphasia friendly canada, and the aphasia institute.
emma jones is a multimedia editor with healthing. you can reach her at emjones@postmedia.com or on instagram and twitter @jonesyjourn.
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