SPEECH THERAPY EFFECTIVENESS IN A CASE OF EXPRESSIVE APHASIA RESULTING FROM STROKE Eficácia da fonoterapia em um caso de afasia expressiva decorrente de acidente vascular encefálico

The purpose of this article was doing a report case of an aphasic client subjected to speech therapy in the clinic of a Speech Pathology and Audiology course of a federal university. The studied subject is a male patient, aged 68, treated in the clinic since May 2009. His therapeutic process was analyzed up to December 2010. The client suffered an ischemic stroke in the left cerebral hemisphere, on January 2009, when suddenly presented mutism. After the evaluations, the therapist concluded that the client presented “aphasia, compromising the oral and the writing expression, caused by ischemic stroke”. So, the treatment plan was created. Since the start of therapy, significant linguistic changes could be observed in the client. A primary factor for the satisfactory recover was the quick search for the speech treatment (15 days after the stroke), because there is a degree of spontaneous recovery in aphasic clients. But, the good results are minimal without the adequate therapy. Only one month after the beginning of the therapy, the client improved substantially his vocabulary. Despite the injury area is extensive and fundamental to the language, it was observed very positive results with the therapy. So, we believe that the early speech therapy contributed a lot to the linguistic recover, since the client communicate satisfactorily, if we consider the great extension of his injury.