Jay,
Aphasia is very different from motor speech and motor disorders such as
dysarthria and apraxia. Aphasics often have Dysarthria and or apraxia,
depending upoon the severity, location, and cause of their injuries. Aphasia
is an impairment in one's ability to formulate, organize, and or express
thoughts and feelings. The aphasia can be fluent or nonfluent. Dysphasia-
from what I know is an old term for aphasia. It is hard to say whether or
not Children who have sustained head injuries or strokes prior to birth can
have aphasia. Many conditions and factors must be examined. Aphasia is a loss
of language and or speech abilities. If a child has not developed language,
how can he loose it? A more appropriate term may simply be "language
disordered" or speech / language impairment secondary to brain injury or
developmental disorder. A normally developing child who has been expoused to
language but does not speak yet can indeed acquire aphasia. Because they have
already started learning language receptively and are preparing for language
expression, any trauma or brain attack can interrupt this development and cause
aphasic symptoms. IF you want more information about childhood aphasia-
research Landau Kleffner Syndrome.
Good Luck,
Kelly
Speech language Pathologist
