Differential language recovery in an English-Polish bilingual individual with severe aphasia: a four-year longitudinal case study.

Authors

Katarzyna E Polanowska, Aleksandra J Zielińska-Michalak

Published in

Postepy psychiatrii neurologii. Volume 35. Issue 2. Pages 224-231. Epub Sep 22, 2026.

Abstract

The purpose of this case study is to present factors influencing therapeutic decisions and patterns of language recovery in bilingual post-stroke aphasia, focusing on the impact of single-language therapy on both the treated and untreated language.
A 68-year-old right-handed English-Polish bilingual male with severe post-stroke aphasia received long-term English-based language therapy and was evaluated at four time points over four years. Language abilities were assessed using the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination (BDAE) and the Aphasia Severity Rating Scale (ASRS). Both languages improved in specific functions (BDAE), but overall communicative effectiveness (ASRS) differed markedly. The patient regained basic conversational ability in English, whereas Polish remained nonfunctional, with pathological switching into English. The observed changes were analyzed with regard to the extent and possible limitations of cross-linguistic transfer.
Recovery in bilingual aphasia may differ substantially between languages in specific linguistic functions and overall communicative effectiveness.

PMID:
42898591
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 20 Oct 2026.

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