Functionally relevant items in the treatment of aphasia (part I): Challenges for current practice

Abstract

Background: Aphasiologists are motivated to select "functional", "relevant" and "useful" items for use in therapy; yet the field lacks discussion on what is meant by these terms and how to identify such items. Aims: The purpose of this article is to review the meaning of "functionally relevant" in the aphasia treatment literature and to specify challenges in identifying potentially relevant items for therapy. Main Contribution: This article shows that aphasiologists lack clear definitions, strategies and concrete tools to assist with identification of functionally relevant items for language therapy. Two main categories of functional vocabulary are defined-personally chosen vocabulary and ge..