From National Aphasia Assocation:
If the symptoms of aphasia last longer than two or three months after a stroke, a complete recovery is unlikely. However, it is important to note that some people continue to improve over a period of years and even decades. Improvement is a slow process that usually involves both helping the individual and family understand the nature of aphasia and learning compensatory strategies for communicating.
From our own Aphasia Researcher, Dr. Richard Katz:
Practically every aphasia treatment study is done with aphasic subjects who are 6+ months post stroke, so when studies show that a particular intervention is effective, they are also demonstrating that chronic aphasic patients can still learn and still improve. They have suffered brain damage but most can still re-acquire skills and learn new effective compensatory techniques. That’s pretty much what we do in an outpatient setting. The issue out there no longer is do aphasic patients 6 months and more post onset show improvement in treatment outcomes. It is, what good does that improvement do and is it worth the cost? Of course, the answer depends on the individual aphasic person.
The question whether or not patients can improve after “spontaneous recover” ends (6 months) is no longer asked. They can. The question “how much therapy is enough?” is again dependent on the individual patient’s needs, not just language needs, but communication needs as they pertain to quality of life and independence on one side of the coin, and depression and feelings of isolation and helplessness on the other. Therapy and practice provide the patient the opportunity to “do something productive about” his/her situation.
Practically every aphasia treatment study is done with aphasic subjects who are 6+ months post stroke, so when studies show that a particular intervention is effective, they are also demonstrating that chronic aphasic patients can still learn and still improve. They have suffered brain damage but most can still re-acquire skills and learn new effective compensatory techniques. That’s pretty much what we do in an outpatient setting. The issue out there no longer is do aphasic patients 6 months and more post onset show improvement in treatment outcomes. It is, what good does that improvement do and is it worth the cost? Of course, the answer depends on the individual aphasic person.
The question whether or not patients can improve after “spontaneous recover” ends (6 months) is no longer asked. They can. The question “how much therapy is enough?” is again dependent on the individual patient’s needs, not just language needs, but communication needs as they pertain to quality of life and independence on one side of the coin, and depression and feelings of isolation and helplessness on the other. Therapy and practice provide the patient the opportunity to “do something productive about” his/her situation.