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Nonparallel recovery in bilingual aphasia: Effects of language choice, language proficiency, and treatment

Loewenstein Rehabilitation Hospital, Ra'anana, Israel, maligil{at}clalit.org.il

Mira Goral

The Boston University School of Medicine

We describe a 57-year-old Russian-Hebrew bilingual aphasic patient who received speech-language therapy in his second language (Hebrew) in the first three-and-a-half months post onset and then in his first language (Russian) for an additional month and a half. He was first diagnosed with Expressive-Receptive aphasia in both languages. After four weeks of treatment in the second language, his language skills improved and he was subsequently diagnosed with Predominantly Receptive aphasia in both languages. Three-and-a-half months post onset, he was diagnosed differently in the two languages: Predominantly Receptive aphasia in Hebrew and Amnestic aphasia in Russian. Following additional six weeks of therapy, this time in his first language (Russian), the patient was diagnosed as Amnestic in both his languages. We present the course of his improvement as seen in four successive evaluation periods in both the treated and nontreated languages, in all language modalities. We address various factors that may have contributed to the nonparallel recovery of the two languages and discuss the relative contribution of spontaneous recovery, therapeutic transfer, language proficiency, language use, and structural relations between the two languages.

Key Words: aphasia • bilingualism • therapeutic transfer • treatment

International Journal of Bilingualism, Vol. 8, No. 2, 191-219 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/13670069040080020501


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