Group therapy has been one of the supplementary means for socialization, improvement of communication abilities and solution of psychological problems of aphasic patients, and not the means to replace individual therapy. Recently, however, a few reports, including ours, have appeared to suggest that both group and individual therapy are efficacious for managing aphasic patients. This paper describes our fifteen years' experience working with aphasic patients in groups. The groups were formed by patients with the same type of aphasia and with the same extent of impediment, as much as possible, usually consisting of 4 to 10 patients. The programs intended to treat speech and language deficits by discussions, stimulus-response manipulations, language games and music therapy. To compensate for language training in groups, all patients were given home tasks. Daily reports were also required of all patients. A diary card specially designed for each patient, with severe language deficits, was effective in activation of his or her regular daily life. Socialization was achieved through discussions on news and topics. Since a high quality of life contributes to improving aphasia, hobbies such as calligraphy and painting, house-holding and working at welfare facilities were recommended. Group therapy is expected to be introduced as a useful means for managing aphasic patients by many institutions.

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Many people with Down syndrome suffer from speech and hearing disorders such as delayed speech, articulation disorder, hearing impairment and stuttering. The author provided the speech therapy for 5 years to a boy with Down syndrome who had only 17 expressive words at 6:11 years old. Although he acquired a maximum of 5-word sentences, his articulation disorders were severe. He spent many sessions to acquire phonemes except labial consonants and fricative consonants. The errors of phonemes were mainly of distortion. He could not discriminate between voiced and voiceless phonemes and could not correct his errors. But by the use of letters he could identify them. As a result, his speech and articulation disorders are considered to be caused by the disorder of his development of the phonetic system, and he can not image and identify the precise phonemes. Therefore, to speech, using visual stimuli such as written letters or cued speech will be useful for children with Down syndrome who have severe speech handicaps.

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We held educational meetings for the families of aphasics in order to get stronger family support. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the meetings for the families of aphasics and to investigate the relationship between aphasics and their families. Subjects were the family members of 7 aphasics. The families joined the meetings 3 times once every 2 weeks. After watching part of a video about the lives of aphasics, they discussed their difficulties. We advised how to get along with aphasics in a family setting. Before and after the meetings, the families answered a questionnair about the aphasics' daily life. We investigated the relationship between aphasics and their families through the discussion and the questionnair. The results of this study were as follows; (1) The families of 4 of 6 cases improved their attitudes to aphasics. (2) The aphasics whose families showed good acceptance didn't express complaints about their daily lives. (3) The family's attitude greatly influenced the aphasic's adjustment. (4) Communication difficulties caused by aphasia may keep aphasics from getting support from their families.

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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