Fitness for Aphasia

Hey everyone!

As many of you know, I'm working on my masters in speech-language pathology at Emerson College. Many of the clients that we work with as speech-language pathologists are experiencing aphasia, a language impairment that affects 25 - 40% of people who have strokes. In order to raise funds for the American Aphasia Society, many of us at Emerson are committing to 150 minutes of exercise a week. Regular exercise is one of the best ways to prevent strokes in the future and donating to the American Aphasia Society is a wonderful way to help those who are affected by aphasia now. 

You may be asking, what really is aphasia? Aphasia does NOT affect intelligence. However, it does affect a person's ability to use and/or comprehend language. Imagine knowing what you want to say, but never being able get the words out. That is what life is like everyday for individuals with aphasia. Not only does aphasia affect spoken language, but it usually affects a person's ability to read and write as well. As you can imagine, living with aphasia can be extremely isolating. So much of what makes us feel close to others comes from communication, whether through conversations, text messages, emails or phone calls. Language is an essential part of the human experience. Two million Americans are currently affected by aphasia. Take the time to learn more about this disorder or if you feel so inclined, please donate! Thanks for taking the time to learn more about aphasia!