[Educational-vocational development of young aphasic patients: results of a catamnestic study]

60 adolescents whose course of recovery from their aphasic disorders had already been studied during the postacute treatment phase in a rehabilitation clinic were catamnestically assessed by a questionnaire. The aim of the study was to gain information about their further linguistic, educational, vocational and social development, and to evaluate the validity of the recommendations made at discharge from the rehabilitation clinic. The results show that inspite of the generally good improvement of aphasic disorders in adolescents, there hardly ever is complete recovery; and they mainly make clear the severe consequences on the further educational and vocational development, which seem to be underestimated as far as institutional help is concerned. Moreover the consequences of the language disturbances on social relations seem to be felt as even harder to cope with. The educational and vocational recommendations at the end of the postacute rehabilitation phase turned out to be valid to a surprisingly high degree. Concluding, some possible consequences the results could have on improving the rehabilitation process are discussed.