Aphasia Treatment

This is the first single-authored book to attempt to bridge the gap between aphasia research and the rehabilitation of patients with this language disorder. Studies of the deficits underlying aphasia and the practice of aphasia rehabilitation have often diverged, and the relationship between theory and practice in aphasiology is loose. The goal of this book is to help close this gap by making explicit the relationship between what is to be rehabilitated and how to rehabilitate it. Early chapters cover the history of aphasia and its therapy from Broca's discoveries to the 1970s, and provide a description of the classic aphasia syndromes. The middle section describes the contribution of cognitive neuropsychology and the treatment models it has inspired. It includes discussion of the relationship between the treatment approach and the functional model upon which it is based. The final chapters deal with aphasia therapy. After providing a sketch of a working theory of aphasia, Basso describes intervention procedures for disorders resulting from damage at the lexical and sentence levels as well as a more general conversation-based intervention for severe aphasics. Anna Basso has run an aphasia rehabilitation unit for more than thirty years. In this book she draws on her considerable experience to provide researchers, clinicians, and their students and trainees in speech-language pathology and therapy, aphasiology, and neuropsychology with comprehensive coverage of the evolution and state of the art of aphasia research and therapy.

Written by leading experts, Approaches to the Treatment of Aphasia presents detailed case studies that describe interventions developed and practiced by well-known clinicians. Each case provides invaluable insights into the clinical process of aphasia treatment for both beginning and experienced clinicians. TEXTBOOK

The functional approach to the treatment of aphasia is embodied in the methods and techniques of Promoting Aphasic's Communicative Effectiveness (PACE), which has had an international influence on the way therapists approach the rehabilitation of aphasia patients. However, there is a shortage of research into the approach and little up-to-date practical guidance on its application. D. Carlomagno's concise book aims to provide a guide to the use and efficacy of PACE methodology which should be useful for aphasia therapists.

Originally published in 1987, Aphasia Therapy surveys the approaches to aphasia treatment from throughout the world that have been taken both in the past and in the present day. The authors critically examine the assumptions underlying different approaches, and show their effects on modern clinical practices. Finally, the book offers new perspectives on some contemporary issues in aphasia therapy, the effectiveness of treatment, and the relationship between an analysis of a patient’s problems and the processes of treatment. Aphasia Therapy is divided into three parts: Part 1 illustrates some approaches to treatment in the period up to World War II – for instance, a didactic approach which emphasised the importance of repetition; the second part considers the different kinds of approaches to therapy that have developed since then – seven "schools" of treatment are identified; Part 3 considers whether there is evidence that treatment of aphasia is effective: the authors argue that in future, aphasia treatment must involve the development and evaluation of specific treatment methods that are theoretically motivated by a coherent analysis of the individual patient’s problems. Students, postgraduates, and practising clinicians in speech therapy will find this volume of great interest, as will neuropsychologists and clinical psychologists.

The neuropsychological rehabilitation of patients with brain in juries presents a new challenge for medicine and psychology. In any society patients who have suffered a stroke or a traumatic brain lesion constitute a large group requiring special therapy; even nowadays only a small group of these patients obtain adequate rehabilitational support. Brain injuries may lead to loss or impair ment of functions like language, sight, memory, attention, emo tional control, or movement, and such impairments are usually ac companied by handicaps in the patient's daily life. Every attempt should be made to improve functional competence and the pa tient's capacity to cope with their disability and handicap. In recent years, the aim of much research in the basic sciences has been to gain insight into the mechanisms of restitution of function, partly by trying to understand the pathophysiological mechanisms that are initiated by a traumatic event. However, in spite of this broad research initiative into recovery of function and the possibilities of cognitive remediation, our knowledge is still rather limited, with respect to both the neurobiological mecha nisms that may underlie functional plasticity and the factors that may account for neuropsychological rehabilitation. In spite of these shortcomings, we would like to stress that progress can only be expected if an intense research effort is made to unite the con cepts and results from the basic sciences with the practical demands of neuropsychological rehabilitation.