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 in a booklet, which 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.