Intervenção fonoaudiológica em afasia expressiva

Abstract

Aphasia is caused by focal cerebral lesion in the dominant hemisphere for language, which can affect communication, social functioning, and quality of life. Moreover, it can cause damages on communication in both oral and written modalities, expressive and/or comprehensive, such as anomie. The anomie is a disorder commonly found in expressive aphasic cases an among the several known therapeutic proposals, the model of word retrieval is a widely used method, since it stimulates the production of words at the level of vocabulary and syntactic organization. The aim of this research was to verify the effects of the therapeutic method of word retrieval in an individual with expressive aphasia. AL, male 47 years old, 8 years of schooling, presented two episodes of ischemic stroke in the left cerebral hemisphere. First, the sociocultural and health questionnaire was applied, and then were the following pre and post-therapy evaluations: Montreal-Toulouse Language Assessment Battery (MTL-BR Battery), Brief Neuropsychological Assessment Instrument (NEUPSILIN-Af), Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Functional Assessment Scale for Communication Skills (ASHA-FACS). The MTL-BR and NEUPSILIN-Af battery instruments were analyzed in a qualitative way, through the patient’s and/or relatives’ information through ASHA-FACS, and in a quantitative way, from the calculation of the Z score ≤ 1.50. The MMSE was analyzed from the total score obtained compared to the normative group. The evaluations were performed by a speech therapist with experience in aphasia evaluation and the therapy was conducted by the author of this study. Before the beginning of the intervention itself, an examination with 50 nouns and 50 verbs was applied to obtain data regarding post-interventional performance regarding the ability of naming. Fifteen word retrieval treatment sessions were assigned to the patient, twice a week, lasting 50 minutes each. After the treatment period, the pre- and post-intervention data of the examination and evaluations were compared, and it was found evolution in several linguistic and cognitive aspects of the individual, with emphasis on the tasks of speech, attention, memory, recall, calculation and also in items regarding aspects of the patient’s daily social communication. The therapeutic approach was effective for the presented case, due to the improvement of several linguistic and cognitive areas that were uncorrected, contributing to a significant improvement in the level of the existing deficit at the beginning of the intervention.