Nine Years Communication Training of a Severe Aphasic Patient Treated through “PACE” Therapy

• Published in: THE JAPANESE JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION DISORDERS Vol. 7; no. 2; pp. 71 - 78
• Main Author: KOBAYASHI, Hisako
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: Japanese Association of Communication Disorders 1990; 日本コミュニケーション障害学会
• Subjects: communicative ability in daily living; PACE; pragmatics; severe aphasic patient
• ISSN: 0912-8204; 1884-7056
• DOI: 10.11219/jjcomdis1983.7.71

The recovery process of a severe aphasic patient who received speech therapy for 9 years is reported. The patient was a 63 year old, right handed male, who suffered from right hemiplegia and constructional disorder. The patient could speak only a few residual words. Although therapy to improve his linguistic functions was conducted for the first 3 years, no improvement was observed. Moreover, the patient could not make use of alternative communicative means. The training method was changed after 3 years. We adopted PACE (Promoting Aphasics' Communicative Effectiveness) which is based on pragmatics. This therapy started with the cooperation of his family members and other patients. As a result, the patient improved his daily communicative ability and has been able to convey even information or requests which are not visually present or are past occurrances. The patient has also developed motivation to communicate. This therapy suggests that a total communication approach such as PACE could be effective in communication training for a severe chronic aphasic patient.