Abstract
This article describes the conversational therapy approach for the treatment of persons
with aphasia (PWAs). Around 1970s, this approach was inspired by a series of pragmatic
principles and techniques to aphasia rehabilitation whose main objective was to set
up a condition of communicative exchange with the PWA using his/her own available
communicative resources. Indeed, although language represents the most powerful behavior
that humans use for communicating, within the conversational approach any intentional
action (i.e., gestures, body movements, facial expression, drawing) can be used to
communicate. For this reason, its application is particularly suitable for severe
PWAs whose damage has compromised all the modalities of language (i.e., production,
comprehension, reading, and writing). In this perspective, the speech-language pathologist's
(SLP's) goal is not necessarily focused on restoring the damaged linguistic functions,
still today pursued by the cognitive approach, but to ameliorate the use of language
by teaching the PWA compensatory, productive strategies, and strengthening his/her
residual communicative abilities. In this review, the fundamental principles of the
conversational approach together with its modalities of treatment, which emphasize
the importance of an active interaction between the SLP and the PWA, are reported.
A brief summary of recent experimental evidence which combines conversational therapy
with a noninvasive brain stimulation technique, transcranial direct current stimulation,
is also included.
Keywords
severe aphasia - conversation - communication - aphasia rehabilitation - tDCS
