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Background : Surveys of awareness of aphasia have been conducted worldwide. There has been no survey of change in awareness in one place over time. A survey in Exeter, UK in 2001 found awareness of aphasia was strikingly low. The aim of this study was to conduct a repeat survey using the same methods in the same city 16 years later to examine changes in awareness and knowledge. Method : We surveyed 167 shoppers in Exeter examining awareness and knowledge of aphasia. Awareness of stroke, stuttering, dyslexia and autism were examined for comparison. Demographic information was collected. Result : Thirty-four percent had heard of aphasia and 5% had some basic knowledge. Awareness of aphasia had improved significantly from 2001 to 2017, but basic knowledge had not. Awareness was higher in professional groups, such as lawyers and academics, and healthcare workers and in those who knew someone with aphasia. Awareness, but not knowledge, was higher in older respondents. Awareness of aphasia was significantly lower than awareness of all other conditions. Conclusion : We found a significant increase in awareness of aphasia in Exeter since 2001, but not knowledge. The implications of ongoing low levels of aphasia awareness, like inadequate funding and difficulty integrating into an ill-informed society, are discussed.

Background: Communication strategy training (CST) is a recognized part of UK speech and language therapists' (SLTs) role when working with a person with aphasia. Multiple CST interventions have been published but, to date, there are no published studies exploring clinical practice in this area., Aims: To investigate UK SLTs' current CST practices., Methods & Procedures: Thirty-seven UK SLTs completed an online questionnaire, eight of whom attended a follow-up focus group. A clinical consistency scale was applied to the questionnaire data and tasks that were most consistently used were explored in the focus group and analyzed using a primarily deductive thematic data analysis approach., Outcomes & Results: Three key CST findings arose: (1) the rarity with which SLTs focus equally and explicitly on both communication partners' strategies; (2) SLTs' differing understandings of CST terminologies and concepts and underuse of formal assessment; and (3) the absence of video feedback., Conclusion & Implications: This study's survey findings suggest that conversation partners not only receive half the amount of CST given to people with aphasia but also play a more passive learning role when they are present. This is an interesting point to consider when the current evidence base contains stronger evidence for the effectiveness of conversation partner CST over other CST approaches, it being described as an effective method that may be maintained over time., (© 2016 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.)

Henry Charlton Bastian (1837-1915) developed his network model of language processing, modality deficits and correlated lesion localizations in the 1860s and was a leading clinical authority for over four decades. Although his ideas are little referenced today, having been overshadowed by his more eminent Queen Square colleague John Hughlings Jackson, his work on aphasia and paralysis was highly regarded by contemporaries. This paper traces Bastian's lasting but largely unattributed contribution to the development of standardized clinical assessment of language disorders. From 1867 onwards, Bastian trained generations of medical students in neurology. In his 1875 book On Paralysis there is evidence in his case descriptions that Bastian had already implemented a detailed set of procedures for examining aphasic patients. In 1886, Bastian published a 'Schema for the Examination of Aphasic and Amnesic Persons'. Bastian insisted on the utility of this battery for diagnosis, classification and lesion localization; he argued that its consistent use would allow the development of a patient corpus and the comparison of cases from other hospitals. In 1898 his Treatise on Aphasia included a list of 34 questions that were to be used to examine all patients to provide detailed and systematic evidence of spared and impaired abilities in all receptive and expressive modalities. Bastian's contribution to the development of standardized clinical aphasia assessment is reassessed through detailed analysis of his publications and those of his contemporaries as well as new material from archives and casebooks. This evidence demonstrates that his approach to diagnosis of language and other cognitive impairments has propagated through the decades. His legacy can be seen in the approach to standardized aphasia testing developed in the latter 20th century through to today.

Objective: Clinical validation of the Spanish version of the Mississippi Aphasia Screening Test (MASTsp) as a screening test for language disorders in patients who have suffered a stroke., Material and Methods: A total of 29 patients who had suffered a stroke and had aphasia after a left hemispheric lesion were evaluated with the MASTsp, the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination and the Token Test at baseline and after six months of rehabilitation. Two expert speech-therapists evaluated twelve aphasic patients to determine the inter-observer reliability. This sample was assessed twice in the same week to analyse the reproducibility of the test (test-retest reliability). Aphasic patients were compared with a matched sample of non-aphasic patients with vascular lesions in the right hemisphere (n =29) and a group of healthy subjects (n=60) stratified by age and educational level., Results: The MASTsp showed a good convergent validity, interobserver validity, test-retest reliability and a moderate sensitivity to detect changes over time. A diagnostic cut-off <90 on the MASTsp total test score is proposed., Conclusions: The MASTsp is a valid tool for the detection and monitoring of language problems in patients with stroke., (Copyright © 2011 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.)

Aim: Several tests are available for aphasia screening following stroke. However, some of them have shortcomings such as need of specialist knowledge, low sensitivity and/or specificity and lengthy administration time. Our study aims to evaluate the language component of the Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination--Revised (ACE-R) as a screening tool for aphasia in stroke patients., Methods: The language component of ACE-R was administered to consecutive patients admitted to a post-acute stroke unit. Patients who were medically unstable or had a significant history of sensory impairment or mental health issues were excluded. The test was administered by two junior doctors with basic training in ACE-R administration. Patients recruited were also assessed by an experienced speech and language therapist (SLT). The results of the two assessments were documented by a different member of the team and the SLT results were used as the benchmark to calculate the ACE-R language component sensitivity and specificity., Results:   Fifty-nine participants were recruited and 27 of them were women. The mean age was 72 (SD 11.9). Thirty-four participants had left and 11 right hemisphere stroke. Fourteen had bilateral affection. Six participants were left handed. A cut-off value of 22/26 of ACE-R language component showed 100% specificity and 83.1% sensitivity, while a cut-off value of 16/26 had 88.2% specificity and 100% sensitivity., Conclusion: Our results suggest that the language component of ACE-R has a satisfactory sensitivity and specificity compared with other screening tests used in strokes. It is easy to administer and free to use., (© 2010 The Authors. Australasian Journal on Ageing © 2010 ACOTA.)

We report B.R.B., a bilingual Turkish-English speaker with deep dysphasia. B.R.B. shows the typical pattern of semantic errors in repetition with effects of lexicality and imageability on performance in both languages. The question we asked is whether language type (Turkish or English) or language status--that is, first acquired (L1) or second acquired (L2)--has a greater impact on performance. Results showed that repetition in L1 (Turkish) was better than that in L2 (English). We also observed effects of language status on oral reading, writing to dictation, and naming (spoken and written) with greater impairment to repetition than other tasks in both languages. An additional finding was that spoken-word translation in both directions was worse than written-word translation, and word class had an effect on translation from L1 to L2. We argue that interactive activation models of deep dysphasia could explain deep dysphasia in bilingual speakers and interactions between task and language, if the weighted connections that support language processing in L2 are assumed to be weaker, thus causing rapid phonological decay to have more impact on task performance in L2. Implications of the results for models of bilingual language processing are also considered.