MODEL RELEASED. Speech therapy. Woman with aphasia practising words during a session with a speech therapist. She is using hand gestures to aid her description of diagrams of simple objects (comb, lower right) that she finds difficult to name out loud. Speech therapy can help many people with speech or language problems. Aphasia is a condition in which the patient has problems with speaking, understanding speech, reading or writing. It can affect people as they age, or after an illness such as a stroke. Photographed in the Aphasia Clinic of Newcastle University's Speech Therapy Department, England.