I love the little smile when he says "that's my wife"

Every word is on the tip of your tongue. Forever.

My father had Broca’s aphasia after suffering a stroke when he was 50. He never fully recovered his speech but he learned to say a lot more with fewer words. It was very frustrating for him because he knew the words, but his brain just couldn’t remember how to say them. The brain is a fascinating organ. He could still sing his favorite songs. And I noticed the words he had said most frequently he remembered, like “wife” and my mom’s name, his kid’s and food names, etc. Lots of work related terms like “money” never really left either. Also the little phrases that we say without thinking - for him it was “I’m telling you man”, “know what I mean?” and “Shiiiiit”. My dad was a great storyteller and hilarious so it really took a lot from him. But I like to believe it made his family and friends better communicators and more empathic. He’d prompt you with a word or two and then laugh as you told him old stories and jokes. I think it makes you want to isolate sometimes out of frustration but friends and family need to make sure they take up the slack and keep engaging the sufferer. He would still hang out with his buddies and laugh and talk, so he got a lot of his old life back. He could still “talk shit” as they say. 😆

How very eloquently put, "Brain is good, you know?..... Words, yuck!" Indeed, that couldn't have been put better :) Thank you Mr Mike for sharing and expressing yourself with the world. Voices of Hope sounds wonderful! I like how you and your wife clarified that it is a program, something with a purpose that you are clearly passionate about. I hope you and the program are doing well.

0:41 The way he was giving it his best to say "That's my wife" and how proud he looked (the smile) when he did it.... It cures depression! Bless him and his lovely wife!

This is so sad for me. My brother fell off out of a tree when he was 18. Fell 30 feet and landed on his head. After 3 months and multiple strokes in/out of coma he came back. But he was never the same person. Spoke just like this, couldn’t remember basic words like cup or bottle. He began to steal from shops, mens clothes, which he could afford to buy. Eventually at 32 he took his own life from sheer frustration. This guy sounded just like him. Miss you John.

He uses his left hand for gesturing. His right hand is affected. So contralaterally his left brain is affected by the stroke. And broca's area is in the left side of the brain. Ahhh such a wonderful example of broca's aphasia for classroom teaching! Really grateful to this man and the people making this video. Hope he gets well soon!

You can see that his thoughts and emotional intelligence are still there fully. I thought it was interesting that he mixed up months and days, both measures of time. It sort of shows that our brain works thematically before it becomes specific.

Thanks for this video, and HUGE thanks to Mr Caputo for accepting to share his experience for educational purposes!

I used to work at a bakery where a regular customer had this kind of aphasia, at least I think it was this - I thought it would be rude to ask. He could really only say yes, no, good, and his name but he could write and use hands pretty well. But he would always come in and grab a dozen bagels for his wife and I'd always be like, "Hey Steve! How you doing today?" We had great conversations, the best he could do anyways, I usually asked him yes or no question about his weekend, but he always got so happy when he came which made my mood so much better. I think one of biggest things is to remember that they still have all their cognitive functions and are still people with feelings. I know this is preachy, but treat these people with respect and love. I know how frustrating it is to not feel understood, but I can't imagine how it would be for every day to be like that. If you find someone who can't communicate well, meet them halfway and help them feel like they belong!

it's like trying to speak a foreign language

I'm watching this after reading about the Bruce Willis diagnosis. I hope he and this man are both okay. Thank you for being in this video

This made me cry... he's taking his ailment well.

Thank Mr. Caputo for sharing your experience with us. You look like at a really laid back guy!

he’s been through so much but he still remembers how to say “that’s my wife” no problem- that’s love. i’m learning about brain & brain injuries in my psychology course right now and this video helped me understand it so much. thank you for interviewing him and thanks to him for the interview!

Aww the way he smiles when he talked about his wife 🥺 he’s precious

When I heard " Brain is good " that made me think about a young man I worked with who had cerebral palsy . He couldn't communicate verbally but when he used his Lightwriter all was revealed because of his great sense of humour . This memory has me wondering about the advantages of advanced technology and how it could help someone with this condition . A humble thanks for your bravery .

Mike has more courage in his pinky than I have in my whole body. Good on him for his foundation work. I'd be lost without my words. Mad respect.

When he said "6....0 people" that itself has opened so much about how aphasia affects the person. Because the words are not only composed of sounds when it comes to speech, the holistic approach to the speech is lost on the other hand, he thinks well, has an imagination and a way of conveying the message for the others to comprehend, only in his mind, the words are stuck and are in pieces.

This makes me sad and happy at the same time. It's saddening that people have to go through life with these disabilities but it's great to see that he has the strength to push through and even to help others.

I can tell she’s really there for him. It’s nice to see. Made me happy. Good luck to them both!

That's so sad! It seems like his thinking is intact but he just can't express it. I imagine it is incredibly frustrating! Are other forms of communication affected, like writing, doing math, singing etc?

He's a much better human than me

Thanks for uploading, helpul for medical students and doctors

Even though he has so much difficulty, he's trying so hard and doing so well. I couldn't imagine having the amount of brain power this man has to come back from a stroke and be able to regain this much speech.

What a humble human being. I hope he is doing well.

#BruceWillis diagnosis brought me here. I'm glad I found this video. Thank you for sharing your personal experience. 🙏🌷🌷

He is adorable!!!! This whole video just made me smile. Seeing the difference between Broca's and Wernicke's is eye opening! Thanks for sharing!

It's amazing that he can have such a positive demeanor when most of his life must involve experiencing incredible frustration. A very impressive, admirable guy.

Just heard Bruce Willis was diagnosed with aphasia and is now retiring from acting. I found this video to get a better understanding of what aphasia is. It seems a little more serious than I originally thought.

My father's uncle had severe aphasia because of a stroke. He could only say a few words but he understood everything. Birthday parties were hard for him because his family did not know how to communicate with him. I did try to talk to him because I wanted him to have some company and knew a bit about communication with people who can't talk since my brother is mute. Talking with him was like solving a puzzle, but he was very fun to talk to. We shared our interest in travelling and would use grandpa's globe to talk about where he went and where I wanted to go. About 2 years ago (10 years after his stroke) dad's uncle died of skin cancer. He chose not to treat it since he felt "it was enough". Grandpa and his wife told me they were grateful I always talked to him. I mise our conversations.

Mike Caputo is an inspiration. Seeing him laugh and being positive is giving hope to many who may be affected by this. Wish you and your wife the best!

Thank you so much, Mr. Caputo, for your contribution to society - for providing others with similar struggles with hope, and for providing healthcare students (and others) with the awareness so that we too can help in the future.

"It's like words .... YUCK." hehe.. What a great fella. I Hope they find more about this, it's very curious indeed ... i heard Michael Stevens from VSauce mention Broca's area and looked it up, this is the video I found. Best of luck and hope for those with brain injuries.

Thank you so much for sharing! As a medical student this really helps me to learn more than just words.

perfect example for broca's aphasia, he even shows right sided hand weakness due to proximity of the areas affected by the stroke. Thank you for sharing

I feel like he's partly fluent and can answer questions only because he's learned to read on his wife's lips and she gives him the answer. Wonderful that he has a partner to rely on and help him through this! It's obvious his comprehension is spot on and I love how the speech automatism like "you know" aren't affected since they aren't processed cognitively. Amazing what our brains and connections to others can do! Thank you for sharing the video and helping my understanding of this condition.

That's terrifying. Super inspirational that this guy is working and sharing with others about his condition.

Must be weird to not have the ability to speak fluently, even if you are fluent

Here after the news of Bruce Willis being diagnosed with this. 🥺🥺

It's amazing he doesn't forget things like "um", "well", etc. Those natural words we try to stop saying when giving a speech. I love how he can still naturally say "it's beautiful" without hesitation.

I have aphasia after going through 9-months of chemotherapy. It’s hard for me to get my words out and form complete sentences. I say “um” a lot and I get so embarrassed talking to people, especially new people because I paused every second trying to think of words to say and then I get frustrated because I don’t remember the word. I know what I want to say, but I just can’t say it. /:

Here learning about this condition after the news of Bruce Willis announcement

Thank you Mr caputo, I’m feeling grateful for whatever I have after watching this, may your life be blessed with joy and happiness

“It’s a season of learning and I’m here for it”. 😛

I never heard of this till I heard of Bruce Willis having this. I wish the best for all who live with this. Thank you for sharing this video.

Thank you Mike!!!!! I work with people that have had strokes, and this is a good example of how in Broca’s aphasia communication ability can depend on the LISTENER as well. Give people with Broca’s time to talk, tune into what they are saying verbally and nonverbally, and check back with them for understanding. His wife is a great help because she’s not speaking for him but helping clarify important points in what is being said or helping with a word someone gets close to but not quite. It can help people with Broca’s work on confidence in speaking because some people will be too anxious or self-conscious to try to talk with other people…and feeling that way when trying to speak with Broca’s usually makes the speaking WORSE for the person trying to speak. Think about this to help out people like Mike you might meet!!!

Wishing him health and happiness. This was very brave of him to share.

This helped me understand my AP Psychology module better!

Thanks for sharing Mike! I can't begin to imagine how frustrating this has to be. You know what you want to convey to another person but literally just can't find the words. Making the best of it and helping others in the same situation is incredibly admirable.

These videos are much more informative than one may realise. It's not just the words that make up communication. The non verbal elements are key. Thank you to the participants. We can learn so much.

I just lost my dad Oct. 15th to a epistemic embolism stroke. May he RIP! My heart is just shredded. 💔💔💔 what I'd do to be able to talk to him. I took care of him his last week and it was soo hard. He couldn't speak, move nothing but I knew he could hear me. Ohh dad I love and miss you. Can't wait to see you again

Thank you, Mr. Caputo for sharing your experience with us! I hope that more people will spread awareness about Broca's Aphasia and we can foster a community of greater understanding re: communication disorders. All the best.

Thanks to mr caputo for sharing his experience. I can tell he's such a lovely person and very much appreciate the inniciative to create a support group! Go mr caputo!!

The way he searches and chooses his words almost reminds me of a severe migraine. It's only happened a couple times in my life to me but when it has happened I struggled to remember my own home address, friends and families names etc, you just feel everything is on the tip of your tongue but your brain just cant seem to retrieve the information.

My late husband had non-fluent aphasia following right-sided stroke. Many thanks to the Houston Aphasia Recovery Center, the University of Houston Department of Speech and Hearing Disorders and Dr. Lynn Maher, and all the fine speech therapists Louis worked with along the way. As Louis’ caregiver, I benefitted by their invaluable expertise and wisdom, also.

"monday wednesday friday" His brain function is on point, he knows whats going on just...cant...get it....out. must be frustrating for him, nicely done!

God Bless this Man for sharing his disorder with us! I pray he makes some recovery and improvements in his Speech! He certainly has a Wonderful Support Person, His Wife, to HELP Him recover from his Stroke!🙏😇😁😍👏👏

My grandma suffered from a severe stroke in 2015 and for the first year, her speech was so impaired that you could not understand her, however hard you tried. Thankfully, we live in Germany so she was able to benefit from intensive speech therapy and occupational therapy four to three times a week for the first year after the stroke. She regained enough abilities to still live independently up to this day. Everyone around here just got used to the way she talks now and I can't even remember how it was before. It´s amazing how well the brain can recover even from the most severe of impairments.

My granny just suffered a small stroke today and her speech is like this now. It’s so heartbreaking to c your loved one go from perfectly normal to different in less than a day! So here I am trying to learn about this journey and praying she has a full recovery! Thank you for sharing this video 💜

He seems like such a kind man!

Here after Bruce Willis' diagnosis

I’m in paramedic school this is a great visual teaching tool. Thank you both for making this.

Thanks Mike! More power. My physiology students were thrilled and grateful to have the opportunity to see this interview.

I am here to understand this condition as I heard today that Bruce Willis has this condition, hope they find a cure soon.

Thank you so much for sharing this. I know it is incredibly frustrating to not be able to find the words you want. My mother (a former doctor and overall brilliant, wonderful lady) is going thru something similar and her symptoms are very similar to Mr. Caputo. I look forward to looking into Voices of Hope. Sounds like a terrific organization. Best wishes to Mr. Caputo and his family.

This guy did a awesome job my mom has aphasia and she only has a few words but it really makes me happy that he has someone to turn to his wife that is so beautiful because I'm that person for my mom and I love it ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

This reminds me a bit of watching someone who's not fluent in a language try to speak it, looking for words, not being sure how to say a specific thing in that language. How interesting. Thank you for sharing this.

What a personable fellow! Thank you for sharing and what an amazing initiative to have started!

What a wonderful person you are, Mike Caputo. Thank you for sharing this! God bless you.

Had to watch this video when I heard Bruce Willis retired from acting from the same condition. I couldn’t imagine not being able to find the words in every sentence.. so sad

Words yuck is actually one of the best descriptors of aphasia I’ve heard from someone with it.

I can just imagine the difficulty....just imagine understanding everything and knowung what you want to say but just unable to express yourself...so sad...hope he is doing much fine now

I wish him all the best he’s doing a phenomenal job ❤️💕

It's so fricken cool to see an engineer approaching the mental blocks with creativity in how to break through. He clearly knows what he wants to say but his voice isn't following along.

they should use his description of how it feels to have Broca's in textbooks man 3:15-3:50

Thank you Mr Mike Caputo. God bless you sweetheart

that was amazing to watch, thank you for spreading the word, dude! with me, it takes some time to find the words and it's really frustrating to not know how to put words together to make a sentence, and i don't even have aphasia, so seeing people with aphasia being able to manage having normal lives really inspires me. also, thanks for putting subtitles, english isn't my first language so it gets pretty hard to understand certain stuff sometimes lol

As a cog psych student, thank you so much for this example of Broca's aphasia!

Damn it’s like he knows what he wants to say but it just doesn’t come out the way he wants it. He seems so happy though regardless of his diagnosis I respect that !!!

I'm here cause Bruce Willis has this. Anyone else?

This condition usually results from a stroke. Aphasia usually results when a stroke occurs in the left hemisphere of the brain. A stroke in the left hemisphere causes right sided hemiplegia. As you can see, the patient's right arm is weak and he is always supporting it with his left hand.

The man is trying. God bless him. Go bud! Godspeed!

This is exactly how I feel when I travel to another country and I barely learned a couple of pages from a phrase book. Um, town, um... old... where... old.... please? (They say a complicated sentence back) Yes. Yes. I love how he looks back at his wife regularly to check if he's doing okay, and has a little celebration with his eyes each time.

I'm so happy that this man the right hand support of his wife and when he really ends a sentence strong you can hear how fucking proud she is. That being said I can't stop thinking how this is the way Charlie Kelly lives his life and then I couldn't stop laughing and I do kinda feel bad.

This is exactly what is happening to me but it just starting happening this morning. I can type just fine and I know what I want to say but can’t get the words out. I had a couple strokes two years ago but this is new.

Thank you tactustherapy and Mr. Caputo for sharing this video. I am currently a SPTA getting ready for my board exam and thi s video really helped me with understanding the differences between the aphasia's specifically brocas and wernickes.

What a wonderful, kind, patient man for making such a great effort to give us all a sense of what this is like. I am wondering whether he can still write the words, it's just speech that's affected? Hang in there Mike! I wish you have a good recovery.

I wish somebody had diagnosed the type of aphasia I had after my strokes. It's amazing what comes out of your mouth without trying. I was left to my own devices which wasn't very helpful and I used to have Tourette's like tics at the same time. I still do at times of stress and tiredness. Ah well, despite the lack of support from the dear old NHS, my wife and I had a lot of fun inventing the game of 'Aphasic Scrabble'. Sending kindest thoughts to all in the same boat.

Forgive me, but based on what I see, he is very fortunate. I don't know too many folks that recover from a stroke with speaking and interpreting functions.

I had a stroke on the right side of my brain when I was 21, for it was my left side that was affected. For about 8 minutes I was doing John Hurt's version of the Elephant Man without trying. Thank God it only lasted 8 minutes. That was 40 years ago and blood pressure that was a lot less than it is now. For 40 years I've been wondering when I would get another one, especially when my blood pressure shoots up to like 300 over 200. By the way, whenever I hear David Bowie's "Heroes" song, it takes me back to that day I had that stroke, for that song was playing in the background when I had it.

Thank you Mr Caputo for sharing, you have really helped me to get an idea of what this sort of aphasia is.

God bless you Mr. Caputo.

Came here because of Bruce Willis. 😭 Be well Legend 🙏🏼

What an incredible man and example! While it is sad to see someone suffering like this, his determination that this is not going to stop him in life is inspirational!

Sweet man with a lovely heart. I’m glad you have a lovely wife at your side. Wishing you all the best. I have lupus and it causes a lot of neurological problems. At the age of 23 I was walking to college and forgot how to get there even though I’d walked it many times before. Thankfully I remembered my way home. It happened again going to the supermarket. I didn’t tell anyone about it…. It’s taught me to have patience and respect for people with all kinds of disabilities. Sending love and hope x

God Bless you guys for sharing your experience.

god bless him! i searched for this after i heard what happened to bruce willis

Thank you so much for this Mike!! I'm trying to study Broca's Aphasia for a story I'm writing, and this was hugely helpful! Thank you again!

Thank you so much to all the participants for making and sharing this video. It is so helpful to ordinary people who are new to the syndrome.