[Speech therapy in aphasia].

The speech therapy in fifteen aphasic patients was studied. The group consisted of 8 male and 7 female patients and their ages ranged from less than ten to more than fifty years. In eleven cases the aphasia was due to cerebrovascular disease and in the remaining four cases to traumatic injury to the brain. Predominantly expressive aphasia accounted for five patients while in the others a comparable degree of receptive and expressive deficits existed. Six patients had their therapy programme started within the first three months after the acute phase and the rest of the group started it after more time had elapsed. Eleven patients showed a satisfactory recovery regardless the inicial deficit severity, the patients age, the pathology of the lesion or the period of time which elapsed from the beginning of the disease to the start of the therapy. The speech therapy in aphasic patients is effective although a firm prognosis cannot be established at the beginning of the programme. Useful information concerning prognosis only can be taken from the follow-up and after thoroughly retesting the patients.