Recent Advances and Future Directions in Aphasia Therapy

Abstract

This article reviews literature in aphasia rehabilitation in the English-speaking world. Although attempts have been made to incorporate literature from other continents, the major bias is toward North America. Four themes are emphasised. They are (1) advances in neuroscience that have already realised influences in language rehabilitation and some that have potential influence for the near future; (2) effects on language rehabilitation that have resulted from the worldwide acknowledgment and acceptance of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF); (3) the growing emergence of psychosocial concerns in the management of aphasia; and (4) present and future applications of technology to aphasia rehabilitation. For the sake of manageability, the review is largely limited to the rehabilitation literature of the decade from 1998, and to published or in-press work that is programmatic in the sense that it represents more than a single publication.