Symptom 4: Conduit d’Approche
Our next symptom, conduit d’approche, is a unique characteristic often seen in individuals suffering from conduction aphasia. This French term, translating to “approach behavior,” pertains to a person’s attempts at self-correcting speech errors. They may come closer to the target word with each attempt but never quite hit the mark.
For example, if they intend to say the word “caterpillar” but instead start with “calculator,” subsequent attempts might sound like “caterpillar,” “catapillar,” before eventually saying “caterpillar.” It’s as if they’re honing in on the correct word or phrase, yet consistently miss the bullseye.
This symptom offers insight into the paradoxical nature of conduction aphasia, where the individual has retained their language comprehension but struggles with accurate speech production. The person is often aware of the mistakes in their speech and makes conscious efforts to rectify them. However, these attempts, characterized by conduit d’approche, often fall short of complete accuracy.(4)
