Abstract
This article reflects on the future of intervention for language and communication
disorders that follow unilateral damage to the right cerebral hemisphere. The author
first introduces some of the challenges inherent in this task: a very small and preliminary
evidence base and a limited number of investigators conducting treatment research
for most of the consequences of these disorders, more general difficulties of translating
evidence to practice, and limited graduate training in the area. The article then
addresses some predictions and hopes for the future. The author foresees progress
in defining the disorders and in clinicians' knowledge of the heterogeneity of the
population, the multifaceted nature of complex impairments, and the expanding range
of well-justified treatment options. The article next discusses the potential of noninvasive
brain stimulation techniques, virtual reality-based approaches to intervention, and
the promise of telerehabilitation. Finally, the author voices a concern that undeniably
important new trends in health care, such as emphases on patient-reported outcomes
and patient satisfaction measures, could penalize the subset of the client population
that lacks awareness of or minimizes their deficits, and calls for vigilant clinician
advocates in such cases.
Keywords
Right hemisphere disorders - cognitive-communication disorders - treatment - speech-language
treatment
