Resumen de Nonparellel recovery of languages in a quadrilingual aphasic patient

Dario Filiputti, Alessandro Tavano, Lorenza Vorano, Guido De Luca, Franco Fabbro

• This case study aims to investigate whether the treatment of only one language (L2) of a multilingual fluent aphasic(L1 Slovenian, L2 Italian, L3 Friulian, L4 English) results in a parallel improvement of all languages and whether the hypothesized benefits of rehabilitation last four years after the end of treatment. After a first assessment by means of the Aachener Aphasie Test (AAT) and the Bilingual Aphasia Test(BAT), the patient has been treated for six months in Italian(L2), subsequently tested again, and finally retested four years after the ischaemic lesion.

  The resulting recovery pattern is non parallel, with a significant improvement of the language of treatment—Italian—L2—and of Friulian—L3 and of English—L4 and a significant decrease of Slovenian—L1 between the second and the third assessments. Results seem to provide evidence that rehabilitation effects are maintained four years after the end of treatment.