Language assessment of a Farsi–Norwegian bilingual speaker with aphasia

Abstract

The increased occurrence of strokes combined with the high incidence of bilingualism in many regions of the world has led to an increasing number of bilingual adults with aphasia. The literature on bilingual aphasia shows the need for valid, comprehensive and reliable assessment tools for diagnostic and treatment purposes. In spite of a growing number of case studies of bilingual speakers with aphasia, there is still a need for more studies of speakers with different language combinations. This case study describes a Farsi–Norwegian bilingual speaker with aphasia. Data were collected using the Bilingual Aphasia Test in both languages. The aim of this study is to show how assessment of both languages of a bilingual speaker with aphasia may reveal differences in linguistic competence between the languages and to discuss the relevance of the assessment for clinical practice.

• aphasia
• bilingualism
• assessment
• Bilingual Aphasia Test (BAT)

Acknowledgements

The author thanks the aphasic speaker for participation in this study. She further thanks Marianne Lind, Inger Moen and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this article.

Declaration of interest: This project has been financially supported by the Norwegian ExtraFoundation for Health and Rehabilitation through EXTRA funds.