Aphasia can be treated

The Feb. 28 Health & Science article “When words won’t come. This is my life with aphasia.” shared some important perspectives on aphasia, a largely misunderstood language disorder. The writer shared her personal experience, and said that she used “self-devised therapies.” It’s important to note that there are professionals (speech-language pathologists) who can help. It’s critical that readers aren’t left with the impression that they must recover alone — or that significant progress can’t be made. In fact, the opposite is true.

Although aphasia affects communication, it does not affect intelligence. Many people with aphasia return to work and other aspects of their daily lives, and speech-language therapy can help facilitate life-changing improvements.

Anyone experiencing aphasia should seek out the services of a certified speechlanguage pathologist. Their doctor should be able to provide a local recommendation, or they can find one from the American Speech-language-hearing Association’s searchable database.

Robert M. Augustine, Rockville The wrier is president of the American Speech-language-hearing Association.