The study compared PACE (Promoting Aphasics' Communicative Effectiveness) and traditional stimulation therapy in the remediation of naming deficits in a 66-year-old conduction aphasic. In PACE, client and clinician engage in natural interaction sequences using multiple channels, including gestures, to communicate. PACE resulted in greater gains in…

Testing of 17 adult and 25 adolescent stutterers during a 12-month to 24-month postintensive treatment phase revealed that 69% of subjects maintained satisfactory fluency on surprise phone calls at home/work and 80% of subjects rated their speech fluency as good or fair on the Speech Performance Questionnaire. (Author/JDD)

The study calculated indices of interjudge reliability and interjudge and intrajudge agreement on ratings made by 15 experienced speech clinicians on 5 deviant speech dimensions of 15 speakers with ataxic dysarthria and a wide range of speech intelligibility. Judges were reliable in tracking imprecise consonants, excess and equal stress, and harsh…

This study examined effects of group communication treatment on the linguistic and communicative performance of 24 adults with chronic aphasia. Participants received five hours of group communication treatment weekly provided by a speech-language pathologist. Participants had significantly higher scores on communicative and linguistic measures…

To explore factors related to selective mutism (SM), a survey of persons (N=153, including 135 children) with SM was undertaken. Three theoretical assumptions are supported: (1) variant talking behaviors prior to identification of SM; (2) link between SM and social anxiety; (3) potential link between temperament and SM. (EMK)

A semantic-based treatment was used initially to train naming of nouns in four adults with aphasia. Treatment responses and error patterns indicated treatment resulted in improved naming of both trained and untrained items for two participants. Two other participants showed improved naming only after phonological information was added. Results…

The effect of extended, continuous exposure to frequency-altered auditory feedback during an oral reading and monologue task on the stuttering frequency and speech rate of 12 adults was examined. A significant decrease in stuttering events and an increase in number of syllables produced was found for the oral reading task but not for the monologue…

Background: The paper reports on a laboratory investigation of the effects of self-modelling on stuttering rate in adolescents and adults. Self-modelling refers to a therapeutic or training method, usually involving videotape, that uses exposure to oneself performing selected error-free behaviours as the conduit for promoting behaviour change.…

The purpose of the course on aphasia in adults, from which these proceedings resulted, was to increase the knowledge and skill of professional persons who are actively engaged in the areas of aphasia: in research, rehabilitation, or teaching. The course was jointly sponsored by the University of Virginia and the Vocational Rehabilitation…

To investigate the effects of stuttering therapy involving the avoidance reduction - anxiety reduction approach, a study was conducted with 16 adult stutters who received group and individual therapy for two evenings a week for nine months. Evaluations were made nine months prior to therapy, at the beginning and end of therapy, and nine months…

The effect of syntax training on the sentence production of four adults with Broca's aphasia was examined. Generalization and maintenance were measured, and naive judges rated "adequacy" of responses. Findings indicated that effects are limited to the grammatical constructions taught, and that effects on response adequacy may be limited.…

Twelve male subjects were divided into three groups (model-plus-reinforcement (MR), model-only, and control) to determine if the presence of a verbalizing model to 35mm slides would elicit increased speech. Verbalization increased over treatments, especially in the MR group. Generalization to the word occurred in only three subjects. (Author/SJL)

In a two part article the author first discusses the importance of fluency, rate, breathstream management, prosody, and self-confidence to the replacement of stuttering with normal speech; and second outlines specific clinical procedures for achieving these goals with adult and adolescent stutterers. (Author/LS)