Setting a research agenda for the assessment and treatment of aphasia in minority languages

Ana Matić; Marie Pourquié; Monica Norvik; Jelena Kuvač Kraljević; Hanne Gram Simonsen; Silvia Martínez-Ferreiro; Valantis Fyndanis; Amaia Munarriz-Ibarrola; Eva Soroli; Anthony Pak-Hin Kong; Javad Anjum; Niharika M K; Wei Ping Sze; Io Salmons; Anna Gavarró; Adrià Rofes; Ritienne Grima; Gregoire Python; Reem S W Alyahya; Maria Kambanaros; Maria Garraffa; Semra Selvi-Balo; Britta Biedermann; Kati Renvall; Mohamed Taiebine; Michal Biran; Ayesha Areej; Suzan Dilara Scheffer; Nour Ezzedine; Brooke Hallowell; Stefanie Keulen; Mira Goral; Claudia Peñaloza; Seçkin Arslan

doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2026.02.013

Setting a research agenda for the assessment and treatment of aphasia in minority languages

Cortex. 2026 May:198:13-26. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2026.02.013. Epub 2026 Feb 21.

Authors

Ana Matić¹, Marie Pourquié², Monica Norvik³, Jelena Kuvač Kraljević¹, Hanne Gram Simonsen⁴, Silvia Martínez-Ferreiro⁵, Valantis Fyndanis⁶, Amaia Munarriz-Ibarrola², Eva Soroli⁷, Anthony Pak-Hin Kong⁸, Javad Anjum⁹, Niharika M K¹⁰, Wei Ping Sze¹¹, Io Salmons¹², Anna Gavarró¹², Adrià Rofes¹³, Ritienne Grima¹⁴, Gregoire Python¹⁵, Reem S W Alyahya¹⁶, Maria Kambanaros⁶, Maria Garraffa¹⁷, Semra Selvi-Balo¹⁸, Britta Biedermann¹⁹, Kati Renvall²⁰, Mohamed Taiebine²¹, Michal Biran²², Ayesha Areej²³, Suzan Dilara Scheffer²⁴, Nour Ezzedine²⁵, Brooke Hallowell²⁶, Stefanie Keulen²⁷, Mira Goral²⁸, Claudia Peñaloza²⁹, Seçkin Arslan³⁰

Affiliations

¹ University of Zagreb Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences, Croatia.
² ELEBILAB, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain.
³ Department of Education, Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education, UiT the Arctic University of Norway, Norway.
⁴ Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies, University of Oslo, Norway.
⁵ Gerontology and Geriatrics Research Group, Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de A Coruña (INIBIC), Complexo Hospitalario Universitario de A Coruña (CHUAC), SERGAS, Universidade da Coruña, A Coruña, Spain; Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education Sciences, Universidade da Coruña, A Coruña, Spain.
⁶ Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus.
⁷ Department of Linguistics, University of Lille & CNRS STL Lab France, France.
⁸ Academic Unit of Human Communication, Learning, and Development (HCLD), The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
⁹ Department of Communication Sciences and Special Education, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Speech-Language Pathology, JSS Institute of Speech and Hearing, Mysuru, India.
¹¹ University College London, Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, London, United Kingdom.
¹² Departament de Filologia Catalana, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain.
¹³ Center for Language and Cognition Groningen (CLCG), University of Groningen, the Netherlands.
¹⁴ Department of Human Communication Sciences & Disorders, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Malta, Malta.
¹⁵ Faculty of Psychology, University of Geneva, Switzerland.
¹⁶ Division of Speech and Language Therapy, School of Health and Medical Sciences, City St George's, University of London, London, United Kingdom; King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
¹⁷ School of Health Sciences, University of East Anglia, United Kingdom.
¹⁸ Anadolu University, Department of Speech and Language Therapy, Turkey.
¹⁹ Curtin School of Allied Health, enAble Institute, Health Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, Australia.
²⁰ Department of Psychology and Speech-Language Pathology, University of Turku, Finland.
²¹ Euromed Research Center, Euromed University, University of Fez, Fez, Morocco; Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, Euromed University of Fez, Fez, Morocco.
²² Department of Communication Disorders, Ariel University, Israel.
²³ Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow (SCALA), University of East Anglia, The Netherlands.
²⁴ Department of Artificial Intelligence, University of Groningen, the Netherlands.
²⁵ Université de Lorraine, DevAH, Nancy, France.
²⁶ Brain Empowerment, LLC, USA.
²⁷ Brussels Centre for Language Studies, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.
²⁸ Lehman College, CUNY, NY, USA.
²⁹ Department of Cognition, Development and Educational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; Cognition and Brain Plasticity Unit, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain.
³⁰ CNRS, BCL, Université Côte d'Azur, Nice, France. Electronic address: Seckin.ARSLAN@univ-cotedazur.fr.

PMID: 41791212
DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2026.02.013

Abstract

The aim of this position article is to establish the state of affairs in aphasia assessment and treatment in individuals who speak minority languages. This article reports on recommendations from a panel of experts working with individuals with aphasia in a variety of languages to develop a research agenda for aphasia assessment and treatment in minority languages. Members of Working Group 2 (Aphasia Assessment and Outcomes) of the Collaboration of Aphasia Trialists (CATs) were invited to respond to a short online agenda-setting questionnaire and to discuss issues regarding this topic. The panel of experts then refined the responses and recommendations into future research themes and objectives. Seven priority themes were identified: Definitions, Tools, Research Practices, Treatment, Speech and language pathology (SLP) Training, Societal Impact, and Norms. In the EU alone, about 60 minority/regional languages are spoken by around 40 million people. Considering increasing caseloads and a lack of clinical tools for speakers of minority languages, this research agenda has an important impact for future research and clinical advancements.

Keywords: Aphasia; Assessment; Minority languages; Treatment.

MeSH terms

Aphasia* / diagnosis
Aphasia* / therapy
Humans
Language*
Minority Groups*
Speech-Language Pathology