In some instances an individual will completely recover from aphasia without treatment. In these circumstances, language abilities may return in a few hours to a few days. For most cases of aphasia, however, language recovery is not as quick or as complete. While many individuals with aphasia also experience a period of spontaneous recovery in which some language abilities return over a period of a few days to a month after the brain injury, some amount of aphasia typically remains. In these instances speech-language therapy is often helpful.
Recovery usually continues over a two-year period.
Most people believe that the most effective treatment begins early in the recovery process. Some of the factors that influence the amount of improvement include the cause of the brain damage, the area of the brain that was damaged, the extent of the brain injury, and the age and health of the individual. Additional factors include motivation, handedness, and educational level. Aphasia therapy strives to improve an individual's ability to communicate by helping the individual to utilize remaining abilities, to restore language abilities as much as possible, to compensate for language problems and to learn other methods of communicating. Treatment may be offered in individual or group settings.