Evaluating the effectiveness of therapy for word production impairments in aphasia.

Funded Activity Summary

This project addresses the remediation of language disorders following brain damage (aphasia). It targets the difficulties people with aphasia have in retrieving and accurately producing the words they need to communicate. These word production impairments are an extremely common symptom of aphasia and may be of different types. They are often severe but can be improved with treatment. However, there is no one task that is effective for every person with word production impairments in aphasia. Unfortunately, to date research has failed to investigate adequately the relationship between the type of word production disorder and the appropriate treatment task to successfully remediate it - matching treatment to impairment remains a process of 'trial and error'. As therapy is a time consuming (and hence costly) process, it is clearly desirable to be able to select the best treatment as quickly as possible. This project aims to address this issue. We will investigate the effectiveness of two tasks which are commonly used by speech pathologists in their treatment of people with word retrieval impairments: answering a question regarding the meaning of a word (e.g. Does a cat purr?), and naming a picture with the help of the first sound of the word (e.g. the sound kuh' to help name a picture of a cat). We will determine if after treatment with these tasks, word retrieval and conversation skills improve; and in particular if one task is more effective for one type of word retrieval problem (e.g. retrieving the sounds of the word) than for another (e.g. impaired word meanings). The results of this study will enable Speech Pathologists to select the correct treatment with more accuracy than is currently possible, providing benefits in terms of increased communication ability for aphasic individuals (and hence greater social participation, quality of life, and reduced depression) and benefiting the Health Service Providers through more cost effective service delivery.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2004

End Date: 01-01-2006

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $231,500.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Rehabilitation And Therapy: Hearing And Speech

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

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Other Keywords

Cognitive Neuropsychology | Word production | anomia | aphasia | cerebrovascular accident/stroke | rehabilitation | speech pathology | treatment efficacy

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