ABSTRACT

Aphasia is an impairment in language comprehension and expression caused by acquired brain damage (Papathanasiou and Coppens, 2013). Aphasia is not a disorder of intellect, although persons with aphasia may also have cognitive impairments if neuropathology affects regions involved in cognitive functions other than language. Aphasia also may have secondary effects on cognitive functions that are language-dependent (e.g. verbal working memory), and individuals with aphasia may perform poorly on cognitive tests as a result of language impairments. The onset of aphasia may be acute (e.g. stroke, focal trauma) or progressive (degenerative diseases, tumour, epilepsy). In the mid-twentieth century the term aphasia also was applied to children with developmental language disorders (see Benton, 1964), but current use is limited to language disorders acquired after age two years (Avila et al., 2010).