Abstract
The efficacy of dysphasia therapy has been a matter of considerable debate for some years. As noted by Benson (1979) there appears to be a long-standing belief among neurologists that such therapy is ineffective, and that any improvement which occurs is not produced by the treatment, but represents spontaneous recovery (e.g. Bay, 1973). After reviewing the evidence Miller (1984) also came to the conclusion that there is very little evidence in favour of the effectiveness of dysphasia therapy. Howard and Hatfield (1987) believe that the scientific community has come to see dysphasia therapy as intuitive and imprecise. It is, they suggest, a less respectable occupation than studying dysphasia for the purpose of testing theoretical models within the hard-nosed discipline of cognitive psychology. Newcombe (1985) also notes that, while the management of patients with neuropsychological impairments is very demanding, its yield for the citation index is small. Powell (1984), in a review of Miller’s (1984) book, proposed that neuro-psychological therapy ‘should still be considered the province of the experimentalist, and not taught willy-nilly to other groups or professions who do not have the necessary scientific background’.
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Shute, R., Curtis, K. (1989). Dysphasia Therapy: A Respectable Occupation?. In: Crawford, J.R., Parker, D.M. (eds) Developments in Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9996-5_23
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9996-5_23
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