Acquired cognitive-linguistic disorders may affect any of area of cognition and often occur due to stroke, brain injury, or other neurological damage. These impairments often result in difficulty with thinking and how someone uses language. One or several of the following areas may be affected:

  • Attention: Difficulty concentrating or focusing on a task.
  • Memory: Difficulty with information recall. This can affect both short term and/or long term memory. People with memory impairments may also report difficulty learning new information such as names, places, or instructions.
  • Reasoning and Problem-Solving: Inability to develop and implement solutions to problems.
  • Organization and Planning: Difficulty putting details or events in an appropriate order.
  • Insight and Awareness: Difficulty recognizing issues with the surrounding environment or with oneself.
  • Social Communication: Reduced or inability to follow pragmatic rules of communication (inappropriately interrupting conversation, difficulty understanding jokes, making inappropriate comments).

Cognitive-Linguistic Disorders Diagnosis and Treatment

At Wake Forest Baptist Health, our speech-language pathologists will meet with you, take your medical history, and perform a comprehensive cognitive-linguistic evaluation. The evaluation will include assessment of your cognitive-linguistic skills using appropriate standardized and functional measures to best determine your strengths and weaknesses.

The information gathered during the evaluation will be used to establish a treatment plan that is right for you. Our speech-language pathologists work closely with each patient, customizing therapeutic tasks to help improve your cognitive-linguistic skills. Therapy may include restorative treatments, compensatory strategies, and communication partner training.