The relevance of patient individuality in the evaluation and treatment of aphasia

RESUMO

The usual approach to language disorders relies on standardised evaluations in which pattern-tests characterise the subject's status according to the classical aphasiological typology. Those data are then analysed to support a traditional prevalent criterion for the distinction between "normal" and "pathological" linguistic performance, which is strictly focused on a quantitative approach. In the present study a method for evaluation and treatment of aphasia is proposed in which socio-cultural conditions are emphasised, in order to expand this conventional criterion as to encompass a qualitative (individualised) one. Although the methodology draws the attention, the results here obtained also point to the importance of re-evaluating what is presently considered as the most appropriate criterion for "normal" cognitive processes, particularly those related to language.