[Recovery processes in 2 cases of bilingual aphasia]

Recovery processes of two English-Japanese bilingual aphasics were investigated with special emphasia on the effect of language therapy. Although the two patients had different types of aphasia (one Broca's aphasia and the other Wernicke's aphasia), the degree of the language impairment initially manifested in English and Japanese was almost equivalent in each case with the pattern of impairment corresponding to the respective types of aphasia. In either case, language therapy was conducted in English, and the course of recovery during the first six months was analyzed. The results indicated that auditory comprehension improved almost simultaneously in both treated (English) and untreated (Japanese) languages regardless of the type of the patients' aphasia. In contrast, oral language production in Broca's aphasia improved only for the treated language while that in Wernicke's aphasia improved simultaneously for both languages. Writing ability seemed to improve as a function of language therapy in both cases. The implications for the relationship between spontaneous recovery and the effects of treatment were discussed.