Abstract
This study investigated qualitative changes in paralexias over twenty months in a Wernicke aphasic patient. The error patterns of reading kanji aloud during therapy were compared for 70 errors on the sixth, twelveth and twentieth month after onset. As a result, neologistic paralexias and semantic paralexias decreased, while literal paralexias and literal or/and semantic paralexias on reading kanji aloud increased, although the pecentage correct for reading kanji aloud showed no change on the Standard Language Test of Aphasia. The semantic paralexias showed an increase in semantic-related errors, but a decrease in semantic-unrelated errors. These results suggest that we are likely to observe improvement by analyzing changes in the error patterns over time, although the percentage correct on the Standard Language Test of Aphasia did not change. In conclusion, it is important to observe not only quantitative but also qualitative changes.
