Objectives: Even if left hemisphere damage occurs, aphasia may not be present if languagerelated areas are not involved. The change in cognitive ability due to brain damage may lead to alexia and agraphia, even in the absence of aphasia. The study examines the effects of aphasia on the performance capability and error aspects of reading and writing in patients with cerebral infarction. Methods: Twenty-four patients with cerebral infarction and 15 normal adults were enlisted to perform 60 reading tasks and 45 writing tasks. Results: First, aphasic patients showed significantly lower performance in reading (irregular and non-words) and writing (regular, irregular, and non-words) tasks than non-aphasic patients and normal subjects. Second, non-aphasic patients showed significantly lower performance in writing (non-words) tasks than the normal group. Conclusion: It appears that patients with cerebral infarction exhibit difficulty with reading and writing, which reveals a written language impairment. In particular, the non-word performance capability of both aphasic and non-aphasic patients was low in writing tasks in comparison with normal adults. This is the result of the fact that writing tasks involve more complex and higher order processes than reading tasks. Non-words are mostly processed through the phonological route, so this result implies the possibility that brain damage affects the phonological route; that is, a grapheme-to-phoneme conversion, regardless of the presence or absence of aphasia.
Objectives: Language sample analysis is one of most the useful methods of assessing spoken language expression ability and is recommended that SLPs use it for evaluation of language disorders. This study aimed to examine use of and needs for language sample analysis (LSA) by Korean speech-language pathologists (K-SLPs) and to suggest improvements for language analysis as an assessment of persons with language disorders based on the results. Method: 1,351 K-SLPs participated in the study. A questionnaire was developed to investigate the demographic information, assessment practices, use of language analysis, and need for using computer-based language analysis and advanced education on language analysis; and then the questionnaire was sent to the participants through an online survey format. The survey data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and χ 2. Results: Only half of the respondents indicated they conducted LSA for assessing language. Participants who had a 1st degree K-SLP certification were more likely to conduct LSA than those with a 2nd degree K-SLP certification. Most of the participants who responded that they conducted LSA reported that they analyzed less than 10 samples over the last year. The main reason for not conducting LSA was that it was too time-consuming. Most of the participants had no experience using computer assistance for LSA; however, they said they would use it if possible and hoped to participate in advanced LSA education and training. Conclusion: The results demonstrated that most SLPs did not conduct LSA, and the main reason for not conducting it was that it is too time-consuming. Based on the results of the study, we discussed ways to improve conducting LSA.
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