Verbal communication abilities of aphasic patients: The everyday language test

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Abstract
The focus of research on aphasia has been directed toward the assessment of the aphasic person's linguistic impairments. In contrast, there has been little attention given to the question of how aphasic speakers get intended messages across in verbal interactions. This issue is of both theoretical and pragmatic importance. In this paper we report results of a study designed to determine the verbal communicative competence of aphasic persons in ordinary daily life situations. The test involves role-playing in 15 everday life situations such as going to the bank. Each scenario elicits highly consistent responses from non-neurologically impaired adults. These responses have two components: (a) necessary elements, e.g. asking a bank teller for change and noting when the incorrect change is given; and (b) socially conventional elements which are elaborative but non-essential. The consistency of normal subjects' verbal responses in these scenarios allows for the establishment of an objective scoring procedure and to make meaningful comparisons among aphasic and normal subjects' responses. In this study Broca's and Wernicke's aphasic subjects were found to be successful in verbally communicating necessary information, even in the face of severe linguistic (notably, syntactic) limitations. Conversely, both aphasic populations showed a significant reduction in their use of informationally inessential but socially conventional elements.