Abstract Therapeutic experience shows that drawing can be used as an aid to communication in aphasia therapy. Not only can drawings be a means of expression for the patient, they also serve as a communicative aid for the respective partner who can draw in order to help the aphasic understand him. Experience also shows, however, that integration of ‘drawing’ into an aphasic's means of expression and communication can rarely be achieved without problems. It is therefore necessary to analyse these problems and to look for practical solutions. Lyon's essay seems to us to be an attempt to take another step in this direction.