頭部外傷による後天性小児失語症の1症例

抄録

A study was undertaken of the process of improvement in an infant suffering from expressive aphasia with central dysarthria and his problems to be solved. The investigation involved an aphasic male infant whose condition was caused by a traffic accident, and was conducted from 6yrs 9 m to 7 yrs 4 m.
The child had lost consciousness for 50 days after the accident, which also caused contusion of the brain and fractures of the left leg. When he first visited our center 9 months after the accident, most of the pathological symptoms had already recovered, except for a partial paralysis of the right arm and leg.
The main complaint was expressive aphasia with central dysarthria. The patient could speak words voluntarily and the only vowel he could pronounce was /a/ with a strained and breathing voice. Both voluntary writing and letter copying were impossible, although he could hold a pencil with the right hand. No abnormality was found either in E.E.G. or CT-scan.
Special emphasis in therapy was put on preparation for entrance into elementary school, which was to come 10 months thereaffer. Four months after the therapy was started, the patient was able to speak 2-word sentences and the problems of articulation had mostly disappeared. At this point, studies of school subjects such as mathematics and Japanese were added to the speech therapy.
The patient still has some problems to be solved concerning studying of school subjects, although he is able to enter an elementary school.