Mild language impairments after stroke can be diagnosed with a quick test

What is it about?

Aphasia is a language impairment that occurs after damage to the left hemisphere of the brain, such as a stroke. Standard language tests are used to diagnose aphasia, but these tests are not good at identifying mild impairments. Here, we found that letter fluency tests are good at diagnosing mild aphasia. In a letter fluency task, the participant is asked to generate as many words as possible in one minute beginning with a specific letter. These tests are fast to administer and score, making them easy for clinicians to use.

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Photo by Milad Fakurian on Unsplash

Photo by Milad Fakurian on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Even mild language impairments can have a large impact on a person's quality of life and their ability to participate in complex conversations. Having tests to diagnose mild language impairments helps people with mild aphasia get access to the speech-language therapy services that they need.