Symptoms of aphasia are:

• Difficulty speaking
• Trouble understanding speech
• Difficulty with word recall
• Problems with reading or writing

Treatment depends on the root cause. Some people can recover from a brain injury such as a stroke, depending on which parts of the brain were affected.

Rehabilitation programs, including a speech pathologist, can help with recovery. Aphasia therapy helps people with aphasia to use their remaining language abilities, restore language abilities, and learn other ways of communicating, such as gestures, pictures, or the use of electronic devices.

Bruce Willis has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, a disorder that stems from damage to parts of the brain responsible for speaking, writing and understanding language.

About 180,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with aphasia every year. It can occur after a sudden emergency...