The effects of verb retrieval therapy for people with non-fluent aphasia: Evidence from assessment tasks and conversation

Carragher, Marcella; Sage, Karen; Conroy, Paul

Abstract

Despite often impressive improvements on linguistic assessments, there is a lack of evidence of significant generalisation from impairment-focused aphasia therapy to everyday communication. The aim of the current study was to investigate the effect of a verb retrieval therapy across a range of levels of language production. Nine participants with chronic non-fluent stroke aphasia were recruited into this case series. Baseline assessment included naming a range of verbs (i.e., action verbs, semantically light verbs and personally relevant verbs) and sentence production. Multiple samples of conversation were collected from each participant and his/her partner. Consecutively failed verbs were divided across treatment and control sets; these sets were matched for salient psycholinguistic variables such as frequency, imageability and argument structure. A multi-component verb retrieval therapy was delivered, consisting of semantic feature analysis, gesture production and phonemic cueing. Following therapy, participants demonstrated significant and sustained gains in naming treated verbs; more modest effects were seen in untreated verbs. Mixed patterns of generalisation were evident in assessment of sentence production. In conversation, while group analysis suggested a lack of change, individual analyses indicated increased verb retrieval for three participants and qualitative changes related to the syntactic contexts of verbs retrieved. © 2013 Taylor & Francis.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2013
• Journal: Neuropsychological Rehabilitation
• Print ISSN: 0960-2011
• Electronic ISSN: 1464-0694
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 23
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 846-887
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09602011.2013.832335
• Keywords: multi-component verb retrieval therapy, conversation
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/937379
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09602011.2013.832335