Drawing the message across: A successful approach to the improvement of communicative interactions in aphasia?

Abstract

It is certainly a prime goal of aphasia therapy to improve the communicativeskills of language-impaired individuals. However, depending on the overall severity of the language impairment only a rather limited set of stock phrases and a few vocabulary items become available again—in spite of considerable therapeutic efforts. A number of attempts have been made to augment the communicative skills of patients with severe aphasia by teaching them an alternative non-verbal mode of expression. Before commenting on the value of drawing as a communication aid it might be revealing to review the results of some of these attempts.