Crossroads in aphasia rehabilitation

textabstractThis thesis focusses on two types of aphasia rehabilitation, cognitive linguistic treatment (CLT) and AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) training. In a study of the effect of nonlinguistic variables on the outcome of CLT, it was shown, that neuropsychological data contributed significantly to the prediction of verbal communicative ability after treatment. It is concluded that a neuropsychological assessment is needed in all aphasic patients before treatment is started. In a study of the efficacy of AAC in people with a severe aphasia, a computerised communication aid, TouchSpeak (TS), was developed and tested in 34 aphasic patients. 57 % of the participants used the device in everyday life scenarios and overall communicative abilities improved with TS training. The final chapter presents a new test for overall (verbal and nonverbal) communication in people with a severe aphasia. In a pilot group, patients with a severe aphasia showed large variation in overall scores. In addition, several communicative patterns could be described