Constraint Induced Aphasia

Aphasia is a communication disorder that affects many adults and families. Aphasia occurs as a result of damage to the language-specific areas of the brain (ASHA, 2014). Individuals with aphasia may experience difficulties with oral language, receptive language, memory, attention writing, and reading. There are a myriad of approaches designed for the treatment of aphasia. Two treatment approaches, Promoting Aphasics Communicative Effectiveness (P.A.C.E.) and Constraint Induced Language Therapy (C.I.L.T.), and their efficacy in regard to available evidence will be discussed below.

Language is an ability that many of us take for granted in everyday life. For those with aphasia, it is a daily struggle to overcome and effective communication is a goal to strive for. Aphasia patients are able to think, perhaps as well as the average person, but they simply cannot convey their ideas or thoughts easily. The Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination is an excellent examination for the diagnosis of the presence and type of aphasia, and for the location of brain damage. The Minnesota Test for Differential Diagnosis of Aphasia has been shown to be the most comprehensive assessment of the overall patient’s strengths and weaknesses in regard to language; it also allows for physicians to predict recovery accurately. Though it is no longer as popular or applicable as newer diagnostic tests, such as the BDAE, it is still an accurate assessment for aphasia. I think this is the paradox in neurological assessment: as technological advances improve, older assessments are becoming invalidated- though they are not inaccurate assessments. New advances and knowledge are being acquired in medicine every day, therefore there is always room for improvement (Holland, 2008). One of the biggest cons to the two batteries I mentioned in this paper is the fact that they are both time consuming- for both the patient and the

Sundin, K., Jansson, L., & Norberg, A. (2000). Communicating with people with stroke and aphasia: understanding through sensation without words. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 9(4), 481-488.

Clients suffering from stroke have slow speech loss of memory, speechless one side of their body paralysed which cause restriction to their movement.

Aphasia is an acquired language disorder that affects a person’s ability to understand oral and written language, speaking and writing. It is estimated that one third of those who survive stroke have aphasia (Department of Health, 2007). Most patients with aphasia exhibit spontaneous recovery, usually in the first 2-3 months following stroke onset (Godecke, Hird, Lalor, Rai, & Phillips, 2012). However, 30-40% of these patients may experience long-term post-stroke aphasia (Bakheit et al., 2007). Continued rehabilitative treatments with the speech and language pathologists (SLPs) are not as significantly effective due to the current high demands on limited resources (Palmer et al., 2012), which reduced the availability of face-to-face speech

Standardization of the revised Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination is based on a normative sample of 242 patients with aphasic symptoms tested at the Boston, VA. Medical Center between1976-1982.

W.C., a 26 year 11 month old woman, was brought to the Florida Atlantic University-Communication Disorders Clinic (FAU-CDC) by her boyfriend for a Speech-Language Evaluation. She was referred to the FAU-CDC by her neurologist for word finding difficulties and a possible articulation disorder after a left hemisphere hemorrhagic stroke one month ago. According to her boyfriend, W.C.’s symptoms began immediately following her stroke and are characterized by word finding difficulties, slowed and choppy speech, and mispronunciation of certain consonants that is affecting intelligibility along with a strained voice.

The effects of two treatments for word retrieval impairments in aphasic individuals. With the use of errorless naming treatment (ENT) and gestural facilitation of naming (GES). The effects of the two treatments that were used for a daily picture naming/gesture production probe measure and in standardized aphasia tests and communication rating scales were administered across phases of treatment. (p.235)

A contributing factor to this is how difficult it is for people with aphasia to produce sentences that flow smoothly and to connect their sentences. Computer software is helpful in speech therapy because it allows the patients to be able to record themselves speaking, replay it so they can hear exactly what they sound like, and be able to string together partial sentences. This computer program helps the patient produce sentences as they are being formulated. The goal of this program is to “investigate the utility of a two-step treatment that supplements improvements achieved from the use of the software with explicit structural treatment.” (Aphasiology 2009). The results of this study show that this specific approach improves the speech of patients suffering from aphasia, even chronic and non-fluent

Imagine a life where someone could not force words to come out of his or her mouth, even if he knew what he wanted to say. Such is the life for people who suffer from Broca’s aphasia. Broca’s aphasia is a speech disorder where the Broca’s area in the brain’s left frontal lobe malfunctions, resulting in the inability for a patient to form the necessary movements of the muscles for speech production. This type of non-verbal aphasia is often referenced as motor aphasia because of the lack of motor skills in the brain for speech production. Thousands of people suffer from this disorder, and as a result communication between these people and society is incredibly difficult. Although each person experiences Broca’s aphasia differently, there are

These facts give momentum to the importance of the roles and responsibilities for Speech Language Pathologists when counseling patients, and the caregivers of people who have Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s disease directly attacks areas of the brain that effect cognitive abilities and memory, these skills are essential for an individuals comprehension and the production of language – this acquired language disorder is called Aphasia and it is within the speech language pathologists scope of practice to provide counseling to those that are diagnosed, and their caregivers.

6 monolingual English speakers between the ages of 39 and 84 with aphasia from Austin, TX hospitals. All had left-hemisphere stroke, stroke onset at least 6 months before, were right-handed, had high school diploma, and normal vision and

A third type of aphasia, global aphasia, results from damage to extensive portions of the language areas of the brain. “Individuals with global aphasia have severe communication difficulties and may be extremely limited in their ability to speak or comprehend language”. ()

According to the article 795,000 stokes occur annually with roughly 31% of these stroke survivors experiencing poststroke depression (Hamid & MacKenzie, 32-33). The greater the loss of function, autonomy, and communication, can be directly correlated to greater severity of depression. But, this can be counteracted by having a strong support system to aid the stroke survivor through recovery and rehabilitation. For patients who are verbal following a stroke, a regular depression screening should be completed to assess for its presence. This is complicated in patients who are non-verbal or experiencing various levels of aphasia following a stroke, because there are currently no screening tools that have proven valid. Once poststroke depression has been identified, it can be treated with antidepressants, motivational interviewing, life review therapy, support groups, and regular physical activity. In order to improve the knowledge regarding poststroke depression, further research is needed in the areas of screening tools for non-verbal/patient experiencing aphasia that are reliable and the impact of early recognition and

Nearly one million individuals within the United States experience aphasia resulting from a storke. According to the American Heart Association, strokes are the third leading cause of death in the United States. They are often referred to as a cerebrovascular accident (CVA). This occurs when the blood flow to the brain has been either stopped or interrupted. The deprivation of blood flow and oxygen to the brain results in a stroke. Around 41.2 percent of individuals who suffered from a stroke will have aphasia (Guyomard et al., 2009). Aphasia is a deficit in language abilities resulting from the brain (Manasco,2014). Aphasia is broken down into, two categories fluent and non-fluent. Individuals with aphasia typically suffer from anomia.