Aphasia and Math: Deficits with Basic Number Comprehension and in Numerical Activities of Daily Living

Objective: In the present study, we explored numerical problems in individuals with aphasia. We investigate whether numerical deficits, usually accompanying aphasia, can be observed on number comprehension tasks that do not necessarily require an oral response. Method: Individuals with aphasia were classified into anterior, posterior, and global subgroups according to the lesion type. To investigate numerical cognition, we used a relatively recent tool, the Numerical Activities of Daily Living (NADL). Results: The results showed that individuals with aphasia have problems with tasks of basic number comprehension as well as in most NADL. In the formal part of the NADL, anterior aphasic patients made comparatively more errors than the posterior aphasic patients. Global aphasic patients presented an invariably poor performance on almost all tasks. Conclusion: The results provide insight into how numerical deficits may impair an individual with aphasia in activities of daily living. This study is a preliminary attempt to start the validation process of the NADL for the Greek population.