The longitudinal trajectory of discourse from the hyperacute to the chronic phase in mild to moderate poststroke aphasia recovery: A case series study

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: This study highlights the importance of investigating all discourse processing levels as the longitudinal changes in discourse operate differently at each phase of recovery. Overall results support future longitudinal discourse investigation in people with post-stroke aphasia.WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: What is already known on the subject Multi-level discourse analysis allows for in-depth analysis of underlying discourse processes. To date, very little is known on the longitudinal discourse changes from aphasia onset through to the chronic stage of recovery. This study documents multi-level discourse features in four people with mild to moderate aphasia in the hyperacute, acute, subacute and chronic stage of post-stroke aphasia recovery. What this paper adds to existing knowledge The study found that most discourse variables demonstrated improvement throughout time. Macrostructural variables of coherence and thematic units improved throughout the continuum whereas microstructural variables demonstrated greater gains in the early compared to the late period of recovery. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? This study suggests that multilevel discourse analysis will allow a better understanding of post-stroke aphasia recovery, although more research is needed to determine the clinical utility of these findings. Future research may wish to investigate longitudinal discourse recovery in a larger sample of people with aphasia ...
Source: International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders - Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Source Type: research