Understanding the brain disorder affecting Bruce Willis

Key Facts

You may have never heard of aphasia, but the brain disorder is "more common than Parkinson's Disease, cerebral palsy or muscular dystrophy," and affects some 2 million Americans, according to the National Aphasia Association.
It can be difficult for people with aphasia to follow a fast talker, or understand complex sentences and concepts, ASHA said.
For those with milder forms of aphasia, treatment can be restorative, using speech therapy to retrain the brain to recognize words and speak and write.
According to the National Aphasia Association, a complete recovery from aphasia is unlikely if the symptoms last longer than two or three months after a stroke, but hastens to add that "some people continue to improve over a period of years and even decades."