An instrument to quickly and reliably classify aphasic patients’ symptoms in syndromes based on cognitive assessments.

Abstract

The classification of aphasic patients' symptoms into a syndrome is a crucial procedure that favours and simplifies the communication among the clinicians involved in patient treatment and follow-up. Nevertheless, the aphasic population usually presents a very heterogeneous symptomatology; consequently, classical syndromes do not offer a good basis to plan their rehabilitation relying on their specific language impairments. Current rehabilitation strategies frequently require the identification of specific cognitive abilities affected. This is why it is common in clinical practice to assess aphasic patients with a syndromic protocol in order to classify them as well as a cognitive battery to plan their rehabilitation. The aim of the present article is to present a quick and reliable tool (i.e., a syndromic classification sheet) to help clinicians classify their clients' symptomatology in a syndrome by means of only one cognitive neuropsychological assessment. Two groups of speech therapists (5 experienced and 5 inexperienced) were asked to classify 5 aphasic patients from a syndromic classification sheet and their assessment protocols. Results indicate an acceptable inter-rater agreement for the experienced group but not for the inexperienced one. In conclusion, the classification sheet turned out to be a useful and reliable tool to classify aphasic patients in a given syndrome and by means of only some subtests from a cognitive assessment battery, provided that clinicians had some years of experience. In addition, this new instrument enables language clinicians to shorten the assessment of their aphasic clients.

Language as a Predictor of Motor Recovery: The Case for a More Global Approach to Stroke Rehabilitation

“…Aphasia is now acknowledged as being associated (or co-occurring) with an array of deficits in motor and cognitive domains. This is why, more and more, scientists talk of an aphasic “syndrome” 18,19 in which language deficit is just one typical feature of an underlying deficit, which includes impairments of cognitive function and memory.…”