Acquired childhood aphasia refers to language deficits following brain lesions after the age of acquisition of the first sentences, generally after...

Acquired childhood aphasia refers to language deficits following brain lesions after the age of acquisition of the first sentences, generally after the age of 2. The most common etiological causes include vascular lesions, trauma, tumors and infections involving the language dominant hemisphere {see Marien et al., this volume, for a review of the cases of "crossed aphasia in children" or acquired childhood aphasia after right hemisphere lesions in right-handed children). Before the late 1970s it was believed that aphasia in children was characterized by "negative symptoms" such as mutism, dysarthria, reduction in sentence length and telegraphic speech. More recently, neurolinguistic tests, including systematic analyses of spontaneous and descriptive speech, and comprehensive language batteries have allowed researchers to evaluate the different aspects of language (for example, auditory, semantic and syntactic comprehension; syllable, word and sentence repetition; naming and sentence production). In children with acquired aphasia, these methods highlight positive symptoms such as logorrhea, paraphasia, perseverations and neologisms (see Leheckovd, Paquier et al., this volume). Moreover, these symptoms correlate with clinical aphasic profiles and lesion localizations similar to those of adults. Indeed, at least in their acute phase and lesional phase aphasic syndromes in children have been found similar to most of the aphasic syndromes in adults (cf. Van Hout, 2000). Recovery of acquired childhood aphasia remains one of the most debated issue still today. Before the early 1970s language recovery in childhood aphasia was believed to be rapid and complete (Lenneberg, 1967). Later studies have shown that, even if language seems to return to normal, non-linguistic abilities (such as working memory) are affected too. Therefore, irrespective of age and lesion etiology, children encounter educational difficulties. These findings stress the need for rehabilitation and educational/professional support in the chronic stages of childhood aphasia (see Pavao Martins, this volume).