ABSTRACT
This chapter covers the effects of aphasia on speech comprehension. Methods for assessing spoken word understanding are described with examples from specific tests. Using individual cases, the chapter illustrates how word comprehension can fail for different reasons, such as an inability to distinguish speech sounds or a failure to access meaning from words. Sentence comprehension impairments are described. These particularly affect the understanding of semantically reversible stimuli, such as “The dancer is followed by the queen”. Such sentences cannot be understood purely from the meaning of the words but require the syntax to be processed. Methods for assessing discourse comprehension are outlined. The chapter describes aphasic difficulties with discourse and residual strengths. The social and emotional consequences of comprehension impairments are discussed and how these may be mitigated by the application of comprehension strategies.
