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Over the last years there has been an important development in the treatment of aphasia. Contributes from Europe, America and Australia covering cognitive, linguistic and social aspects of the aphasia therapy, carried out a well articulated theoretical framework for a variety of approach and research to support the claim that aphasia works. Eight different schools of aphasia therapy have been defined and described in literature (behavioural, cognitive, neuropsychological, pragmatic, etc.) with common assumptions about the process of therapy and the nature of aphasia. |
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In
spite of the wide spectrum of theoretical perspectives related
to aphasia therapy, at the present, the common idea among therapists
and researchers is to address attention to the individual needs
and social problems of the aphasic persons. In this recent view
aphasia is not only a deficit of speech language, but a disorder
of the communication in all its modalities. In this way the aim
of aphasia therapy is not to re-learn specific damaged skills,
but to increase the use of all other potential means of communication
to support and compensate impaired language. In Italy the study
of language disability has been neglected and the therapy has
been undervalued respect to the diagnosis. In Italy aphasics benefit
from intervention of National Health Service' s speech therapists.
They offer a "traditional" treatment, based usually
on unselected "stimolation" or many personal therapeutic
approaches. The italian speech therapists take care of aphasic
people alone, without possibility to discuss their professional
choices with other members of the rehabilitation team. The are
many reasons to explain this situation: big cultural distances
among rehabilitation members, lack of contact between neuropsychological
researchers and local operators. |
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