People who had aphasia (difficulty in processing language) were still competent with thoughts, opinions and emotions.
It could be a hidden disability because there was no visual sign of it.
Up to 40% of stroke survivors had communication difficul-ties and, of these, 60% would still have aphasia after a year.
Aphasia affected each person differently; some people had only mild difficulties, others had very severe communication difficulties.
People with aphasia often knew what they wanted to say, but they had difficulty getting the words out.
"A way of explaining the condition is to compare it to the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon that we all experience from time to time.
"Imagine, however, living with this feeling constantly, all day, every day - you have intelligent thoughts but no way of getting your message out."
It can affect talking, listening, reading, writing and number recognition.
One of the aims of speech language therapy awareness, promoted this week by the New Zealand Speech Therapy Association, was to encourage people to give the same opportunities for inclusion to people with aphasia as they would to someone with an obvious physical difficulty, such as those in a wheelchair.
Mrs Zani suggested allowing extra time for conversation, being patient, reducing background noise, keeping conversations straightforward and emphasising key points.
