Cynthia K. Thompson - Böcker

Agrammatic aphasia (agrammatism), resulting from brain damage to regions of the brain involved in language processing, affects grammatical aspects of language. Therefore, research examining language breakdown (and recovery) patterns in agrammatism is of great interest and importance to linguists, neurolinguists, neuropsychologists, neurologists, psycholinguists and speech and language pathologists from all over the world. Research in agrammatism, studied across languages and from different perspectives, provides information about the grammatical structures that are affected by brain damage, their nature, and how language (and the brain) recovers from brain damage.The chapters in this book focus on the symptoms that arise in agrammatic aphasia at the lexical, morphological and sentence level and address these impairments from neurolinguistic, neuropsychological and neurological perspectives. Special attention is given to methods for assessment and treatment of agrammatism and to the neurobiological changes that can result from the treatments. Perspectives on Agrammatism provides an up-to-date overview of research that has been done over the past two decades. With contributions from the most influential aphasiologists from Europe and the United States, it provides an indispensable reference for students and academics in the field of language disorders.

As a consequence of the disability movement, the thinking generated by the World Health Organization's classification of disability and functioning, and an upturn in concern for the long-term consequences of aphasia, it has become apparent that two distinctive pathways for the treatment of aphasia have emerged over the past decade. The first (and most traditional) involves assessment and management directed toward lessening the effects of the impairment of aphasia, while the second pathway focuses less on specific language than on the psychosocial consequences of aphasia. This unique text specifically contrasts impairment- and consequences-focused treatment with the aim of providing clinicians with a level playing field that permits them to evaluate for themselves the relative contributions that each approach provides, to evaluate their relative strengths and weaknesses, and finally to seek common ground. An opening chapter sets the scene, while the heart of the book, based on real cases, concerns five meticulously described, yet hypothetical individuals with aphasia.In each of the cases, detailed descriptions and assessment results are provided and clinical management plans, representing each approach, are presented by internationally recognized experts in aphasia rehabilitation.