Consideration of Communicative Problems in Aphasic Patients

Abstract

Communicative problems in aphasic patients may be considered from two different aspects : the first relates to disorders which can be evaluated by objective tests including hearing tests, linguistic tests as well as neuropsychological and neurological examinations ; the other is the psychological or subjective aspect, which is most essential for communication.
Forty-three adult patients with sensory, motor or mixed aphasia served for the present study. They were examined by CT or MRI of the brain, pure tone audiometry, cognitive tests of speech, the Token Test and the Standard Language Test for Aphasia. In addition, subjective estimations of degree of aphasia and communicative disorder were made by the patients themselves, members of their family and speech therapists using a scale disigned for this purpose.
The results obtained were as follows: 1) Severity of aphasia and communicative disorder as estimated by the three groups did not always correlate. Generally speaking, severity had a tendency to be overestimated by the patients themselves.
2) According to the patients' complaints, their struggle for verbal communication becomes more serious when they are placed in a strained situation, even in a therapeutic session.
On the basis of the present study, we concluded that the core of communication is“mind”and not language, and language is nothiog but a tool of communication.