Aphasia Patients: Harder words are better for recovery

We usually take baby steps and work our way up when we're learning something new. However, for people with the condition called aphasia, it's often better to start off on higher difficulties. Aphasia is a condition after a stroke where people have difficulty speaking and understanding languages. They tend to recover and improve quicker by starting with harder words. At Boston University, Speech researcher Swathi Kiran works with bilingual asphasia patients to help them reestablish their abilities to speak and understand language. She found that when the patients practiced harder words in a language they don't speak very fluently in, they increase vocabulary in both languages. When the patients study only words in the language where they are comfortable and familiar, they only improve in that language.

This does not only apply to bilingual patients. Patients who only speak in one language also reap benefits from this. For example, learning vegetable names such as "parsnip" and "rutabaga" will enable the patient to easily learn easier vegtable names like "pea" or "carrot". Kiran says our brain works like a box. We learn new words and we store them in our box. Learning difficult words allow us to understand easier words once we've rummaged through the box and recall our collection of words. This is how she words it.

The topic is related to biology because it's a form of medical treatment for aphasia and a study to improve knowledge about this disorder. This is important to us because plenty of people around the world have strokes. Recovering from a stroke is a difficult process, especially if you receive a condition such as aphasia afterwords. A study like this may help patients in their recovery. (Swathi Kiran has not yet officially published a paper on this study, but they are similiar to papers she's published before.)

Source: Ross, Valerie. "In Stroke Rehab, Skip the ABC's". Scientific American Mind July/August 2010: 13-13.