Summary

In Aphasia and Related Cognitive-Communication Disorders, renowned author Albyn Davis gives graduate students and others pursuing a clinical career in adult language disorders, a comprehensive, up-to-date look at theory and practice in a balanced treatment of impairment-based and communication-based disorders. Written in a relaxed writing style, the book presents topics in an organized, logical progression that first provides an understanding of a disorder, next discusses assessment and diagnosis, and then treatment. Included are explanatory “walk-throughs” to make challenging concepts clear plus coverage of special topics including therapeutic software and other technologies, levels of evidence, neuroplasticity, new medical treatments, quality of life, and primary progressive aphasia.

Author Biography

Albyn Davis received his B.A. from Stanford University and his Ph.D. from Ohio University, both in the field of Communication Disorders. After three years as a speech-language pathologist at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Pittsburgh, he taught for nine years at the University of Memphis and 23 years at the University of Massachusetts where he retired as professor emeritus in 2007. Currently he is an adjunct professor at New York University, teaching Language Disorders in Adults. Dr. Davis co-developed the PACE therapy procedure for aphasia. He has investigated clinical interactions and discourse production, and his most recent research delved into psycholinguistic processing by people with aphasia. He has published a series of texts on adult language disorders. He chaired the Clinical Aphasiology Conference and was an associate editor of the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. He is currently on the Board of Directors for the National Aphasia Association and is a consultant for the Adler Aphasia Center.

1 INTRODUCTION TO ACQUIRED LANGUAGE DISORDERS

Diagnosing aphasia

Describing aphasia

Explaining aphasia

Studying aphasia

Treating aphasia

Summary and conclusions

2 NEUROLOGICAL AND MEDICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Neuroanatomy, neurophysiology

Ischemic stroke

Hemorrhage

Tumor

Focal cortical atrophy

Clinical neurological examination

Clinical brain imaging

Syndromes of aphasia

Exceptional aphasias

Summary and conclusions

3 INVESTIGATING LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENTS

Word processing

Detecting sentence comprehension deficits

Explaining sentence comprehension deficits

Word finding and retrieval

Sentence production and agrammatism

Summary and conclusions

4 INVESTIGATING COMMUNICATION AND PARTICIPATION

Cognitive pragmatics

Prosody

Nonverbal modalities

Discourse and text

Conversation

Communication partners

Life participation

Summary and conclusions

5 CLINICAL ASSESSMENT AND DIAGNOSIS

The first visit

Standardized testing

Administering the formal test

Documenting syndromes: The Boston Exam

Syndromes quantified: The WAB-R

Psychometric constraints: The PICA

United Kingdom: CAT

Revival: Eisenson’s Examining for Aphasia

Bedside screening and brief batteries

Diagnostic decisions

Aphasia in bilingual individuals

Summary and conclusions

6 SUPPLEMENTAL AND FUNCTIONAL ASSESSMENTS

Word comprehension

Model-based assessment of reading

Modular impairment: PALPA

Sentence comprehension

Word retrieval

Verbs: Comprehension and production

Speech disorders

Severe aphasia

Functional communication and outcomes

Overall functional outcome

Life satisfaction

Summary in brief

7 RECOVERY AND PROGNOSIS

Stroke

Recovery of language

Approaches to prognosis

Type of stroke

Severity of impairment

Type of impairment

Other factors

Bilingual recovery

The targeted prognosis

Explaining recovery

Summary and conclusions

8 TREATMENT OF LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT

Rehabilitation team and settings

Getting started

Cognitive stimulation

Measurement and generalization

Word-finding and retrieval

Computer-assisted treatment

Efficacy of impairment-based treatment

The brain with treatment

Health care topics

Summary and conclusion

9 SPECIALIZED TREATMENTS FOR IMPAIRMENTS

Studying individual cases

Sentence production

Asyntactic comprehension

Wernicke’s aphasia

Conduction aphasia

Anomic aphasia

Reading impairments

Spelling impairments

Severe or global aphasia

Medical treatments

Summary and conclusions

10 FUNCTIONAL REHABILITATION AND PARTICIPATION

The clinical-functional gap

Functional stimulation

Adaptive language strategies

AAC: Alternative and augmentative communication

Interactive therapies

Life participation

Psychosocial adjustment

Summary and conclusions

11 RIGHT HEMISPHERE DISORDERS

Clinical neuropsychology

Primary cognitive impairments

Secondary impairments

Cognitive pragmatics of RHD

Discourse

Conversation

Clinical assessment

Treatment

Recovery and outcomes

Summary and conclusions

12 TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY

Head trauma

Neuropsychological assessment

Primary cognitive impairments

Personality and behavior

Insight

Language

Discourse

Cognitive-communicative assessments

Cognitive rehabilitation

Recovery and outcomes

Summary and conclusions

13 DEMENTIAS AND PROGRESSIVE APHASIAS

Diagnosis and assessment of dementia

Alzheimer’s disease

Other causes of dementia

Dementia of Alzheimer’s type (DAT)

Language with DAT

Communicative and cognitive rehabilitation

Medical treatments

Primary progressive aphasia

Summary and conclusions

Supplemental Materials

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