The Impact of Aphasia Severity on Spontaneous Speech: Why Is It Important to Assess Coherence and Informativeness?

Česká verze

Authors: Mgr. Zjarová Zuzana ¹; Mgr. Kevická Viktória, Ph.D. ^2,3,4
Authors place of work: Mgr. Zuzana Zjarová, Súkromné centrum poradenstva a prevencie, I. Houdeka 2351, 034 01 Ružomberok, Slovenská republika. ¹; Mgr. Viktória Kevická, Ph. D., Katedra logopédie, Pedagogická fakulta Univerzity Komenského v Bratislave, Pedagogická fakulta, Račianska 59, 813 34 Bratislava, Slovenská republika. ²; Ústav informatiky SAV, v. v. i., Dúbravská cesta 9, 845 07 Bratislava, Slovenská republika. ³; C entrum MEMORY, n. o., Mlynarovičova 2571/21, 851 03 Bratislava, Slovenská republika. ⁴
Published in the journal: Listy klinické logopedie 2025; 9(1): 19-24
Category: Varia
doi: https://doi.org/10.36833/lkl.2025.006

Summary

Spontaneous language production represents a fundamental form of communication in everyday interactions. In patients with aphasia, various aspects of spontaneous production are weakened, with the degree of impairment correlating with the severity of aphasia – ranging from mild to moderate to severe forms. However, there is still a lack of detailed knowledge regarding which specific areas of spontaneous speech are most affected depending on the degree of aphasia. The aim of this study is to comprehensively evaluate spontaneous production in patients with aphasia and to interpret the observed differences with respect to the severity of aphasia. Spontaneous production is analysed using the methodology of Spontaneous Speech Analysis (ASpoR), expanded with an assessment of coherence and informativeness, achieving a more comprehensive evaluation of the patient’s abilities. The research sample consists of 40 individuals with aphasia, divided into two groups of mild and moderate aphasia. According to the results, significant differences exist between these groups in terms of productivity (the number of correctly expressed elementary text units), error rate (total number of phonological errors and grammatical agreement errors), coherence (both global and local), and informativeness (the number of main concepts and the core lexicon index). Based on the findings, it can be concluded that a comprehensive evaluation of spontaneous speech serves as a reliable indicator of aphasia severity, particularly in the context of selected analysis parameters.

Keywords:

aphasia, aphasia severity, narrative discourse, spontaneous speech analysis

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