Aphasia therapy in a bilingual speaker: treatment in language one, with spousal support in language two

Abstract

This report documents the progress of a 38-year-old man with aphasia (1.5 years post-stroke), BB, following eight weeks of outpatient ‘Conducting Conversation’ (CC) aphasia therapy. The CC approach used the patient's wife, MB, to provide the therapy, with the speech-language pathologist as the ‘conductor’, encouraging both members of the dyad to respond in a manner conducive to effective communication. Interaction during therapy sessions occurred in English, whereas their communication with one another occurred in Ilicano. The couple requested English as the language of choice for therapy. The nature of CC therapy was such that they could ‘practice’ in either language. Increases in verbal output, coherence, and communication independence and decreases in conversation repairs in English were documented.