Commentary: Sign Language and Aphasia
Update: An About.com visitor commented that sign language would not help. So I did a bit of research on the government site PubMed, and found two articles that indicated aphasic adults can learn at least some sign language. As a result of this research, I still think sign language might be able to help "Grandpa Jim."
Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 1982 Feb;170(2):113-6
Sign language acquisition by a global aphasic.
A left hemisphere-damaged, hemiplegic, and globally aphasic man was taught receptive and expressive language using Total Communication--a combination of standardized sign language and speech. After an initial period during which words (in sign) were learned slowly and with frequent lapses of memory, the subject's learning ability and memory improved dramatically. He has learned to communicate using increasingly complex, syntactically correct sentences, self-correcting his mistakes. He reads and understands simple sentences. These results suggest that it may be possible to restore communicative function even in those stroke victims who remain orally aphasic if a suitable means of expression can be found.
Acquisition of signs from American sign language in hearing individuals following left hemisphere damage and aphasia.
Neuropsychologia. 1992 Apr;30(4):329-40
Three severely aphasic hearing patients with no prior knowledge of sign language were able to acquire competency in aspects of American Sign Language (ASL) lexicon and finger spelling, in contrast to a near complete inability to speak the English counterparts of these visuo-gestural signs. Two patients with damage in left postero-lateral temporal and inferior parietal cortices mastered production and comprehension of single signs and short meaningful sign sequences, but the one patient with damage to virtually all left temporal cortices was less accurate in single sign processing and was unable to produce sequences of signs at all. These findings suggest that conceptual knowledge is represented independently of the auditory-vocal records for the corresponding lexical entries, and that left anterior temporal cortices outside of traditional "language areas" are part of the neural network which supports the linkage between conceptual knowledge and linguistic signs, especially as they are used in the sequenced activations required for production or comprehension of meaningful sentences.
Comments
“Grandpa Jim’s mind is working fine (as evidenced by today’s strip) but not his mouth. His hands apparently work okay too. Could sign language help Grandpa Jim?”
Unfortunately not, Aphasia comes from damage to the language centers of the brain. Deaf people can get aphasia. As Oliver Sachs mentioned in “Seeing Voices” Deaf and Hearing people with the same form of Aphasia have pretty much the same damage to their brains.
I think the question here is a matter of what part of the brain is affected and causing the person not to be able to speak. My wife, who is hearing, suffered a stroke when she was 28 years old and temperarily lost her ability to speak. Also, she is epileptic, and occassionally, (not always), after a severe seizure, has difficulty communicating verbally. However, she is able to sign perfectly well during these times. She learned ASL the same time she was learning to speak, and although she doesn’t sign daily, she has retained enough of it through the years so that now, having married someone who now signs, she can once again communicate during times that she was before cut off. I noticed the article cited referrencing the left side of the brain. Could it be that it is a left side, right side issue? I believe my wife’s stroke affected the right side of her brain.
My 59 year old husband suffered a stroke on March 27th of this year (left side damage). He is hearing but has signed (not daily) for about 20 years. He has severe Ahpasia and while his expressive signs are confused and garbled like his spoken language, his comprension is better when I sign to him than it is when he is spoken to. Interesting.
What about pen and paper? Couldn’t aphasic patients write down their thoughts? A few months ago they showed Grandpa Jim using pictures from books to say something. It made me wonder if writing would be any better.
I had the opportunity to assess a man who had been deaf and signed most of his life. I found he signed some words, wrote some words, and fingerspelled some words that are commonly signed. He seemed aware that he “used” to know the sign for those words he now wrote or fingerspelled, just couldn’t express them. Perhaps he even thought the sign, he just couldn’t produce it. Similar to hearing people I have seen voice a word and then indicate that wasn’t what they meant to say, but can’t retrieve or get their mouth to say it! With considerable practice, time, and HIS patience, I began to understand him better. It was understandable that interpreters became frustrated. I’ll always remember how grateful he was that we could communicate, but I’m sure I learned MORE and gained MORE than he did. After all, he seemed to know what he was thinking all along!
I realize I am over a year late in commentary. My husband had a stroke which has greatly affected his speech. Have been asked numerous times about signing and writing. In his case, neither is an option.
My medical knowledge is limited, but my experience aphasia is like taking a speaking american and leaving them in china or russia. They can’t read the language, sign it, or speak it. They aren’t stupid, just can’t communicate.
In the case of person with the stroke, they may also have some cognitive problems which can oompound the speech/communication effort.
I’m also late commenting.
People with aphasia have different skills and skill deficits depending on the site of damage to the brain and their resulting aphasia type. There are 9 different types of aphasia. Some have reading and writing skills that are mostly or partially intact. Some have severe expressive communication deficits and intact receptive communication. Some are able to learn to sign or use Alternative Augmentative Communication devices (AAC), while some do not have the skills necessary to do so. Most language is controlled by the left side of the brain (in 90% of people), so if a stroke causes damage to the left side some type of aphasia usually results with language being affected. Every individual with aphasia is different, so it is really impossible to make a blanket statement saying that people with aphasia can or cannot do something or learn something. (ASL for example)