Have you noticed how literal and wordy we are, and how little we notice body language? People with aphasia are the opposite.
I have been reading memoirs about and by people with aphasia and language problems, and aphasics all seem to become more alive to body language and the meaning that lies behind facial expressions. John Hale was already an excellent actor and mimic before stroke abolished his language, but his wife Sheila observed how much more sensitive he became to gesture and tone of voice. ‘Those with reduced comprehension of language are able to understand the gist of what is being said, and quickly become extremely sensitive to tone of voice and body language’ (Hale p.160). In his case his inability to access language with others seemed to create a more direct form of emotional connection. ‘There is something about his eyes and voice and body language that seems to speak more directly to their hearts than all the words with which he charmed and taught throughout his speaking life’ (p.220).
Douglas Ritchie tells of how enraged he was by a nurse who spoke to him in childish language. He also reports how the doctor examined him as he was about to leave the acute hospital: ‘he looked at me rather curiously and then with a nod, as benign as mine was fierce, said, ‘That’s right, that’s right.’ I refused to look at him any more, and the doctor, not noticing or, as I thought, assuming that I was as mad or as simple as he considered me to be, talked to my wife….’ (p.49).
Jean-Dominique Bauby was surrounded by carers who refused to use his painstaking method of communication through eye-blinks and alphabet recitation. His account about the professionals around him is very caustic in places. The ophthalmologist who tapes up one of his eyes is a case in point: ‘I fired off a series of questioning signals with my working eye, but this man – who spent his days peering into people’s pupils – was apparently unable to interpret a simple look. He was the very model of the couldn’t-care-less doctor, arrogant, brusque, sarcastic…’ (p.61).
Oliver Sacks noted the laughter in his hospital from a ward with aphasic patients, aroused by a Presidential Broadcast, in which the words were completely at odds with the body language and gesture. (‘The President’s Speech, in The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat). He went on to say “that one cannot lie to an aphasiac. He cannot grasp your words, and so cannot be deceived by them; but what he grasps he grasps with infallible precision, namely the expression that goes with the words, that total, spontaneous, involuntary expressiveness which can never be simulated or faked, as words alone can, all too easily.”
So let’s be honest with our clients – the aphasics will find us out!