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Functional Workplace Communication Elicitation for Persons with Traumatic Brain Injury
No full textBackground: People with traumatic brain injury have characteristic pragmatic language deficits linked to unstable employment outcomes.
Aims: A functional workplace communication elicitation procedure designed to assess expressive pragmatics is described.
Methods & Procedures: Twenty participants with TBI,10 stably employed and 10 with unstable employment, recorded voicemail messages. Transcripts were analyzed using exchange structure analysis, codes for politeness and linguistic mazes.
Outcomes & Results: Participants with unstable employment histories after TBI produced fewer politeness markers and provided information less efficiently than a stably employed cohort.
Conclusions: The voicemail elicitation task differentiates high-level communication skills related to workplace outcomes in TBI
The effects of Verb Network Strengthening Treatment on a group of persons with aphasia: Replication and extension of previous findings
Get PDFThe current study aims to replicate and extend previous findings with a larger number of participants. Specifically, we asked whether training a set of verbs generalizes to production of 1) sentences containing trained verbs (The carpenter measures the lumber.), 2) sentence containing untrained semantically related verbs (The farmer weighs the apples.), 3) sentences unrelated to treatment (The dog watches the cat.), and 4) single word naming of nouns and verbs. Changes to Western Aphasia Battery-Revised (WAB-R) scores and responses to the CETI completed by communication partners (e.g., spouses of participants) were also evaluated
Assessing Responsiveness to RET by Individuals with Chronic Non-fluent Aphasia: A Clinical Perspective
No full textResponse elaboration training (RET) is a “loose training” program designed to increase the length and information content of verbal responses of patients with aphasia (Kearns, 1985). Patients have responded robustly to RET regardless of severity level or type of aphasia (Wambaugh, Wright, and Nessler, 2012). One difficulty faced by clinicians seeking to use RET is participants in research studies have usually been treated at a frequency and for a duration that far exceeds standard clinical practice.
In order to examine RET from a “clinical perspective,” the researchers carried out a selective meta-analysis of RET focusing on a “window of treatment” that would be commensurate with standard clinical practice
Cross-structural priming in sentences with verb particles and verb prepositions: A replication
No full textStructural (syntactic) priming (Bock, 1986) is an experimental paradigm used to study sentence processing in non-brain damaged individuals. Repetition of a sentence structure in one or more “prime” trials leads to a tendency to use the same structure in a picture description task. Structural priming treatment for aphasia aims to improve sentence processing in aphasia by increasing accessibility of a syntactic structure, and making it temporarily easier to retrieve. However, this technique’s usefulness in treatment depends on the endurance of its effects. Whether structural priming reflects short-term residual activation or short-term learning is a matter of debate (Bock & Griffin, 2000). In treatment studies, this question can be addressed by evaluation of performance at post-treatment assessment
Dosing of a cued picture naming treatment for anomia
No full textConstrain Induced Language Therapy (CILT) has spurred discussion of treatment “intensity” in aphasia research, as clinicians and researchers began asking about the important features of CILT, and whether the principle of massed practice was in fact the driving force behind the treatment technique. However, as studies began addressing intensity of treatment, the need for consistent terms with regard to dosage in aphasia treatment research became apparent. Cherney, Patterson & Raymer (2011) reviewed the literature on CILT and highlight the importance of considering different aspects of dosage with regard to specific therapy approaches. Warren, Fey & Yoder (2007) identified these dosage parameters as dose form, dose, dose frequency, total intervention duration, and cumulative intervention intensity. The purpose of the present study was to identify dosing effects of a cued picture naming treatment, using the terminology proposed by Warren et al. (2007), on word finding abilities in individuals with anomia
Effects of Semantic + Multimodal Communication Program for Switching Behavior in Moderate-Severe Aphasia
No full textThe purpose of the research was to explore a combined semantic + multimodal communication program (S+MCP) for an individual with chronic moderate-severe aphasia with coexisting semantic deficits. The effect of S+MCP on his ability to switch between modalities when an initial communication attempt failed was examined during a referential communication task and administration of the CADL-2 with modified scoring. The participant demonstrated increased switching behavior between modalities during both tasks, and increased use of combined modalities (e.g., verbal plus gesture). Clinical implications and future research are discussed
Learned communicative non-use is a reality in very early aphasia recovery: Preliminary results from an ongoing observational study.
No full textRecent neurorehabilitation literature in animal motor models suggests very early (before day five post-stroke) intensive (over 300 repetitions) leads to histological damage (Krakauer et al, 2012) and late rehabilitation (commenced after day 30 post-stroke) is much less effective than intervention started earlier in recovery. The intricacies of directly applying animal models of stroke recovery and rehabilitation to human language have been well documented (Varley, 2011). In humans, the first 90 days post-stroke however, are believed to be the "window of opportunity” (Meyer et al., 2010) for neuronal changes to occur as part of neuroplasticity. Research investigating human stroke recovery models, indicates that the timing of commencement of therapy combined with therapy intensity are likely to be pivotal elements in overall stroke recovery (Kerr et al, 2011).
Therapy intensity to facilitate stroke recovery in humans is noted to be far less than that in animal models (Krakauer at al., 2012). Research investigating overall activity levels in stroke survivors in the acute recovery demonstrated that patients spent only 13% of their time engaged in activity and spent 60% of the time alone (Berhardt et al, 2004). Further research showed that task specific movement practice occurred in only 51% of sessions during acute and sub-acute therapy sessions (Lang et al., 2009). Similarly, aphasia research in early stroke recovery demonstrated that on average stroke survivors received between 14 minutes (Godecke et al, 2011) and 1.3 hours (Bowen et al, 2012) of therapy per week during the first month post-stroke. To better understand the interactions that occur in early stroke recovery, this study focused on observed communicative activities that may underlie the neuroplasticity principles of “use it or lose it”, and “learned non-use” (Kleim 2011)
Non-Dominant Hand Performance on the Rey Complex Figure Test across Five Age Groups
No full textThe purpose of the current study was to evaluate the ROCFT performance across five age groups when individuals used their non-dominant hand for the copy, immediate recall, and delayed recall conditions. In doing so, we aimed to establish an age-related set of nondominant-hand scores that could be used for determining the relative performance of individuals with left brain damage who are forced to use their nondominant hand for this test
Rubric scoring of a clinical test of executive functioning
No full textExecutive functions (EF) are complex abilities that allow one to successfully complete independent, deliberate, and novel goal-directed activities (Lezak, Howieson, & Loring, 2004). EF tests require solving problems with minimal direction from the examiner (Baddeley, 1992; Shallice & Burgess, 1991). Because EF skills tend to show up globally, Lezak et al. (2004) suggested clinicians will learn more about one’s EF abilities by observing how he or she goes about solving a problem than from a test score. If this is the case, a “rubric” score that took into consideration “how” a problem was solved may provide the clinician with better information for treatment planning than a test score, as long as it did not greatly affect test sensitivity or specificity. Sensitivity and specificity are important factors in determining the usefulness of EF tests. Sensitivity refers to the probability of identifying abnormal functioning in an impaired individual or “hit rate” of a test, whereas specificity reflects the probability of correctly identifying healthy individual with the test (Cartoni & Lincoln, 2005; Kiel & Kaszniak, 2002).
Rubrics are useful scoring tools that divide tasks into component elements and provide a description of levels of performance for each element (Goodrich, 2005; Hanna & Smith, 1998). Rubrics have been widely used to assess student performance (Andrade, 2000; Falchikov, 1986; Goodrich, 1997), but have not been used to score EF tests. The aim of this study was to examine sensitivity and specificity for a clinical test of EF, the Rapid Assessment of Problem Solving test (RAPS) when scored with a rubric that allowed the examiner to describe the quality of performance using a standard that was developed from a large body of normative research. This differs from using the three traditional test scores from the RAPS that require time intensive calculations
Use of Drawing to Improve Word Retrieval in Chronic Nonfluent Aphasia
No full textAphasia disrupts multiple language processes with anomia often being the most common problem. Compensatory strategies have been utilized for individuals with severe anomia, including writing, gesturing, and drawing (Farias, Davis, & Harrington, 2006). However, few formal programs have focused on promoting drawing as a means of communication. These typically use drawing as a substitute for language rather than a tool to enhance verbal expression (Sacchett, 2002). Furthermore, training usually emphasizes ability to recognize drawing rather than information exchange (Morgan & Helm-Estabrooks, 1987; Trupe, 1986 as cited in Sacchett, 2002).
Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA) is a treatment approach based on the premise that although individuals with anomia have difficulty retrieving words, ability to access features related to targets is often somewhat intact (Beeson, Holland, & Murray, 1995). The semantic system is accessed by producing words related to targets, with individuals incorporating these strategies as self-cues to retrieve target words (Boyle, 2004; Chapey, 2001; Rider & Wright, 2008). To date, this approach has aimed to enhance only verbal output.
The purpose of this investigation was to examine if an individual with chronic mixed aphasia could clinically improve ability to name pictured objects through implementation of a drawing protocol. RE underwent a brief but intense treatment program incorporating drawing with SFA to improve word retrieval