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| Therapist researchers: | Wendy Best, Ruth Herbert, Julie Hickin, David Howard, Felicity Osborne |
| Funder | The Tavistock Trust for Aphasia |
| Summary |
This project used a series of detailed single case studies to investigate the effectiveness of written and spoken cues as a treatment technique for word retrieval difficulties in aphasia. Therapy was given in two phases. The first phase used either a choice of phonological cues or a choice of orthographic cues in a picture naming task1. The second phase aimed to help participants use treated words in real life conversation, and used a hierarchy of tasks which gradually moved from production of treated words as single items in communicative tasks to using treated words in structured conversations2. Phase 1 therapy produced significant improvements in picture naming for 7 of the 8 participants1, and Phase 2 produced significant improvements for 5 of the 6 participants2. Most participants showed a pattern of improvement restricted to treated words but 2 showed evidence of general improvement in word retrieval1. The project also explored the relationship between the level of deficit underlying word retrieval difficulties and response to treatment1,2, and the relationship between each participant's ability to respond to cues in a facilitation task and their ability to respond to therapy3.
Finally, as part of the project we began to develop a measure of word finding ability in real life conversation. The POWERS (Profile of Word Errors and Retrieval in Speech) combines qualitative and quantitative approaches to analyse the impact of difficulties with word retrieval on a 5 minute sample of audio taped conversation. Initial results suggest that there are parameters of conversation which represent reliable and sensitive measures of word retrieval difficulties, and which it may be possible to track the impact of therapy on real life conversation4. We are continuing to develop the POWERS in a new research study (see Amersham Project).
| References |
1. Hickin, J., Best, W., Herbert, R., Howard, D. and Osborne, F. (2002) Phonological therapy for word-finding difficulties: a re-evaluation. Aphasiology, 16, 981-999.
2. Herbert, R., Best, W., Hickin, J., Howard, D. and Osborne, F. (2003) Combining lexical and interactional approaches to therapy for word finding deficits in aphasia. Aphasiology, 17, 1163-1186.
3. Best, W., Herbert, R., Hickin, J., Osborne, F. and Howard, D. (2002) Phonological and orthographic facilitation of word-retrieval in aphasia: immediate & delayed effects. Aphasiology, 16, 151-168.
4. Hickin, J., Best, W., Herbert, R., Howard, D. and Osborne, F. (2001) Treatment of word retrieval in aphasia: generalisation to conversational speech. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 36, (Supplement) 13-18.