Residual language deficit in boys with aphasia of traumatic etiology

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury is the most common etiological factor of acquired aphasia in children. Aphasia manifests with an entire block of symptoms relating to speech impediment, which can vary in their severity as well as the form in which they appear. Some symptoms can disappear spontaneously or within the first couple of months with the help of speech therapy, whereas some signs of speech impediment can be present even for years after a brain trauma. This paper describes a patient who was hurt in a car accident when he was nine years old. During the acute phase a serious form of aphasia was identified in the patient, which manifested in the damage of the production and understanding of speech. Six years later, a deficit in vocabulary reading and writing was established. If this problem persists it could be serious problem in learning and acquiring new knowledge.

Traumatske povrede mozga predstavljaju najčešći etiološki faktor stečenih afazija kod dece. Afazija se manifestuje čitavim kompleksom simptoma jezičkih poremećaja, koji variraju kako po težini, tako i po obliku ispoljavanja. Neki simptomi spontano ili pod dejstvom govorne terapije nestaju još u prvim mesecima, dok se pojedini znaci jezičkog oštećenja održavaju i po nekoliko godina posle moždane traume. U ovom radu je prikazan pacijent koji je povređen u saobraćajnoj nesreći kad je imao devet godina. U akutnoj fazi kod dečaka je identifikovan težak oblik afazije, koja se manifestovala oštećenjem produkcije i razumevanja govora. Šest godina kasnije evidentiraju se deficiti na planu vokabulara, čitanja i pisanja. Održavanje ovih poremećaja može predstavljati ozbiljan problem u učenju i sticanju novih znanja.