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Aphasia in Multilingual Patients

  • Behavior (H. Kirshner, Section Editor)
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

We summarize recent published work concerning assessment and treatment of aphasia in bilingual and multilingual people and review current related models of treatment outcomes. As well, we discuss studies that address the recently debated topic of cognitive processes in bilingual individuals with aphasia, with a focus on the effects of bilingualism on aphasia recovery and its potential protective effects.

Recent Findings

Providing assessment and treatment tools that best serve multilingual individuals with aphasia and unpacking the variables and mechanisms that underlie response to treatment have emerged as goals of several recent studies. Additionally, while findings are still contradictory, some empirical studies reported that aphasia may manifest less severely in multilingual individuals and may improve faster compared to in monolingual counterparts.

Summary

The findings of recent studies with the focus of aphasia in multilingual individuals are crucial to understanding theoretical and clinical aspects of brain-related language impairment in multilingual people and to the study of language representation and processing in the brain.

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Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance •• Of major importance

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  1. Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences Lehman College, The City University of New York, 250 Bedford Park Blvd., NY, 10468, Bronx, USA

    Mira Goral

  2. Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, the Graduate Center, The City University of New York, New York, USA

    Mira Goral & Zahra Hejazi

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  1. Mira Goral
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Correspondence to Mira Goral.

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Goral, M., Hejazi, Z. Aphasia in Multilingual Patients. Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep 21, 60 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11910-021-01148-5

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