THERAPEUTIC GROUP IN APHASIA´S CONTEXT

Abstract

The research about group therapy with aphasic people only started at the end of the twentieth century. These studies point out the interaction as an important aspect in the therapeutic process. The goal of this research is to discuss the specificity of the factors that influence the formation of a group in aphasia. To discuss these questions, we will use data collected in an aphasic group in the Universidade Tuiuti do Paraná, located in Curitiba/Brazil. All of the aphasic people that participated in the study had left-hemisphere cerebrovascular accident. All sessions are video-recorded, transcribed and analyzed according to enunciative-discursive approach of neurolinguistics. This perspective is based in socio-cultural approaches. The results show that the group facilitates the practice of discursive situations with different individuals, besides the possibility of developing interactions that surpass the dyad therapist-patient and promotes social life activities for the aphasics. As a consequence, group therapy change the aphasic`s place: from a non-competent subject to a competent subject in spite of his difficulty. The interactions in the group are significant to subjective, linguistic, cognitive and social questions.

ic activity were evident with their mothers. Conclusion: With the intervention, the mothers’ repertoire   was significant and they had an excellent performance in using the communication capabilities as well as an expressive performance by children in communicating their desires through the figures. The procedures showed an increasing on the communicative interaction and autonomy of children.