A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of - Queen Margaret University

unethical, even perhaps illegal, to offer rehabilitation only to those with higher
education and more skills. Additionally, there is a paucity of research evaluating
the contribution of educational experience to language restitution and recent
evidence has not found it to be a prognostic factor in the recovery from aphasia
(see section 2.6.1.2). However as new learning could be an underlying process
involved in language rehabilitation, the impact of education requires
consideration in facilitating the restitution of language function. Would it be
possible to enhance a person’s recovery through teaching them new ways of
learning? Perhaps it would be important to initially discover each person’s own
particular methods of learning and adapt therapy methods to facilitate their
therapy accordingly to promote better restitution of language function.
6.3.1.4 The impact of emotional status on the learning of new vocabulary
The evidence from the literature is unambiguous regarding the impact of
emotional status on recovery from aphasia (see section 2.6.3.2). Apathy, anxiety
and depression impact upon quality of life and post-stroke depression is
considered to be one of the strongest factors impairing recovery. Such
emotional difficulties also affect a person’s cognitive abilities (see section
2.6.3.3) as well as their motivation and language performance (see section
2.6.3.2). The emotional status of participants with aphasia was measured using
the HADs self-rating scale (Zigmond and Snaith, 1983 – Appendix 4.2). The
HADs revealed great variability among participants’ emotional status with results
ranging from anxiety and depression levels of within normal limits to severely
impaired. The hypothesis ‘a self-rating of anxiety will correlate negatively with
the recall of new vocabulary’ was supported for immediate (r = -.672; p