In a patient with left spatial neglect, which strategy is most effective to promote attention to the left side during treatment sessions?

• A. Inability to attend to stimuli on the left
• B. Language difficulty
• C. Decreased sensation in the left arm
• D. Facial droop on the left

Answer: (A)

Left spatial neglect reflects a failure to attend to stimuli on the left side, usually after a right-hemisphere brain injury. The most effective way to promote attention to the left during treatment is to actively cue and prompt the patient to engage with leftward stimuli, helping reorient attention toward the neglected space. This can be done by presenting tasks and meaningful items on the left, giving clear verbal prompts like “look to the left,” and using tactile or visual cues to draw the patient’s gaze and head orientation toward the left. Over time, cues can be gradually reduced as the patient begins to explore the left space more independently.

Language difficulty, decreased sensation on the left, and facial droop are separate deficits that don’t directly address the attentional bias in neglect, so they don’t provide the same targeted benefit for promoting leftward attention during therapy.