Which term describes a language impairment resulting from brain injury?

• A. Dyslexia
• B. Dysarthria
• C. Aphasia
• D. Aphagia

Answer: (C)

Language impairment following brain injury is called aphasia. It happens when areas in the left hemisphere that handle language are damaged, such as after a stroke or other brain injury. Aphasia can affect speaking, understanding, reading, and writing, with people experiencing fluent but nonsensical speech, difficulty finding words, trouble understanding others, or problems with repetition. Dyslexia is a developmental reading disorder, not specifically a brain-injury language deficit. Dysarthria is a motor speech disorder that affects how speech is produced, not the language system itself. Aphagia refers to swallowing difficulties, not language processing. So the term that best fits language impairment due to brain injury is aphasia.