1. My 70-year-old uncle had a stroke a few months back, which left the right side of his body paralyzed. He now speaks only a few words, though he appears to understand everything we say. How useful will speech therapy be?

Aphasia is the term used to describe the disturbance in language following neurological damage. There are different types of aphasia - some have more problem speaking, some have more problem understanding speech, while some others may have problems in both. There are others whose predominant difficulty is in naming.

Speech language therapy is effective in all these various types of aphasia. The efficacy of therapy depends on several factors such as the age of the patient, the type and extent of neurological damage, his / her educational background, presence of other neurological difficulties, family support, etc. Maximum recovery takes place within the first six months of the onset of aphasia. Therefore, it is best to initiate speech therapy as soon as possible. However, improvement can be brought about even at a later stage.

2. My mother is diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Her speech is progressively becoming unintelligible. What can we do?

Your mother has dysarthria which is a speech disorder consequent to a neurological condition. Dysarthrias result from paralysis/weakness/inco-ordination of muscles involved in speech production. A speech language pathologist can teach the patient strategies for improving the intelligibility of speech. In severe cases Alternative Augmentative Communication (AAC) strategies, such as use of communication boards, sign language etc., can also be taught.

3. Is it true that language abilities decline with age?

Language abilities of persons over 65 years of age may show deficits in certain areas such as naming, use of complex sentence structures, etc. These are thought to be due to age-related changes in the brain. Pathological conditions such as Alzheimer's also give rise to language deficits.