People with damaged speech recover faster by focusing on harder words
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/in-stroke-rehab-skip-the-abcs/
When we learn, we usually begin with the basics and work our way up,
mastering our do-re-mi’s before launching into an aria. But when people
have difficulty speaking and understanding language after a stroke—a
condition called aphasia—they seem to improve faster when they start at a
harder level.
Speech researcher Swathi Kiran of Boston University works with
bilingual aphasia patients to help them relearn words. She has found
that when patients practice the language they speak less fluently,
their vocabulary grows in both languages. But when the patients study
words in the language they are more comfortable in, only that language
improves.
Although Kiran has not yet published a study on her bilingual
patients, her observation is in line with her earlier, published papers
and those of other researchers. These studies show that aphasics who
speak only one language also benefit from more difficult practice. When
aphasics study unusual words in a category—such as “parsnip” and
“rutabaga” when relearning vegetable names—they also improve their
fluency with common words in that category (“pea” and “carrot”).
Likewise, practicing complex sentences helps aphasics handle simple
ones.
More behind the paywall.
A more detailed paper here;
Aphasia Therapy in the Age of Globalization: Cross-Linguistic Therapy Effects in Bilingual Aphasia
No comments:
Post a Comment