The role of cognitive models in language rehabilitation

Recently, researchers have advocated the use of cognitive neuropsychological models as an infrastructure for efforts in language rehabilitation. In this approach, clinicians characterize language impairments in individual patients with respect to cognitive models of lexical and sentence processing. This approach contrasts with many earlier efforts in which evaluation and treatment focused on the presence or absence of aphasia viewed as a general language impairment, or on syndromes of aphasia. We consider the structure that cognitive neuropsychological models may provide in different portions of the rehabilitation process and find that this approach, when applied with methodological rigor, has practical implications for practice in aphasia assessment and treatment. In turn, some hope that data derived from clinical applications with this approach may support the modification of cognitive neuropsychological models.