Discussion
After much research, it has been concluded that the utilization of American Sign Language probably would be beneficial in speeding up the recovery process in aphasia patients. Communication is an extremely vital part of everyone’s life, especially after a traumatic illness or diagnosis. When verbal communication is no longer an option, ASL can become a great substitute. As the Cherney, Patterson, & Raymer (2011) pointed out, overall language function may improve if different communication strategies are learned. ASL can the help both in the moment with communicating with family and long-term language goals. Emmory, Mehta, McCullough, & Grabowski (2016) showed in their study that phonological retrieval and encoding processes, which are useful in verbal language, were used by ASL signers, further demonstrating signing’s benefits to eventual language recovery. While more research should be done on the subject, it is clear that implementing ASL into an aphasia patient’s speech therapy routine will positively influence their recovery time. While a variety of studies were reviewed, each …show more content…
Since having the right and left hemispheres properly functioning together is important for a patient to learn American Sign Language, patients with only one functioning side experienced a more difficult time in American Sign Language practice. Due to lack of current knowledge on this topic, it is difficult to determine if teaching American Sign Language is the most effective rehabilitation technique. Since this is a fairly new topic that is slowly gaining attention from researchers, to provide a concrete conclusion is difficult. There are a vast majority of techniques currently being tested by researchers and it is agreed that more research needs to be done in this field to provide the best intervention for aphasic
After much research, it has been concluded that the utilization of American Sign Language probably would be beneficial in speeding up the recovery process in aphasia patients. Communication is an extremely vital part of everyone’s life, especially after a traumatic illness or diagnosis. When verbal communication is no longer an option, ASL can become a great substitute. As the Cherney, Patterson, & Raymer (2011) pointed out, overall language function may improve if different communication strategies are learned. ASL can the help both in the moment with communicating with family and long-term language goals. Emmory, Mehta, McCullough, & Grabowski (2016) showed in their study that phonological retrieval and encoding processes, which are useful in verbal language, were used by ASL signers, further demonstrating signing’s benefits to eventual language recovery. While more research should be done on the subject, it is clear that implementing ASL into an aphasia patient’s speech therapy routine will positively influence their recovery time. While a variety of studies were reviewed, each …show more content…
Since having the right and left hemispheres properly functioning together is important for a patient to learn American Sign Language, patients with only one functioning side experienced a more difficult time in American Sign Language practice. Due to lack of current knowledge on this topic, it is difficult to determine if teaching American Sign Language is the most effective rehabilitation technique. Since this is a fairly new topic that is slowly gaining attention from researchers, to provide a concrete conclusion is difficult. There are a vast majority of techniques currently being tested by researchers and it is agreed that more research needs to be done in this field to provide the best intervention for aphasic