Rehabilitation of aphasia

Aphasia is one of the most striking cognitive sequels of strokes and other cerebral lesions, and attempts to rehabilitate aphasic patients have been undertaken for many years. Following a brief overview of the epidemiology and the clinical characteristics of aphasia, the chapter presents the major traditional approaches to rehabilitation. They include the stimulation approach (also called classic), the behavior modification approach, Luria's approach (functional reorganization), the pragmatic approach, as well as the neurolinguistic approach. The next section illustrates some of the current approaches to aphasia rehabilitation, specifically the syndromic approach (also called neoassociationist), the cognitive neuropsychological approach, and the social approach. The chapter then provides examples of specific methods. While all intervention strategies may be classified, more or less correctly, into one or another of the above categories, it is not possible to mention the hundreds of specific interventions to be found in the literature, some of which have been described only briefly and in reference to a single case. The chapter concludes with a review of efficacy studies on aphasia therapy. Despite some opinions to the contrary, the current consensus is that sufficient experimental evidence of efficacy exists to recommend treatment of aphasia.