syndrome approach/dx of aphasia

Question 1

Syndrome Approach

Answer 1

-based on performance across measures of:

naming, fluency of verbal expression, auditory comp, repetition

Question 2

speech fluency/phrase length

Answer 2

-number of words produced in a breath group or without significant pause
(aphasia diagnostic profiles)
-0-5 words: nonfluent
-6-8 words: borderline fluent
-9 or more words: fluent

BDAE: looks at melodic line

WAB: descriptive classifications

Question 3

Auditory Comp level

Answer 3

• can be mildly or severely impaired depending on aphasia syndrome
• tested by several tasks
• ability to follow verbal single and multistep commands (be careful of limb apraxia)
• yes/no questions: but pts have 50% chance of guessing correctly, always present with reworded pairs
• paragraph-length comprehension: also tested with yes/no questions (pairs again)

Question 4

Repetition skills

Answer 4

• consider preseveration or disturbance of repetition skills relative to conversational speech abilities
• tests: single word rep, phrase rep, sentence rep