ERIC Number: EJ1441179
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024
Pages: 19
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1092-4388
EISSN: EISSN-1558-9102
Determinants of Multilevel Discourse Outcomes in Anomia Treatment for Aphasia
Robert Cavanaugh; Michael Walsh Dickey; William D. Hula; Davida Fromm; Jennifer Golovin; Julie Wambaugh; Gerasimos Fergadiotis; William S. Evans
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, v67 n9 p3094-3112 2024
Purpose: Individuals with aphasia identify discourse-level communication (i.e., language in use) as a high priority for treatment. The central premise of most aphasia treatments is that restoring language at the phoneme, word, and/or sentence level will generalize to discourse. However, treatment-related changes in discourse-level communication are modest, are poorly understood, and vary greatly among individuals with aphasia. In response, this study consisted of a multilevel discourse analysis of archival, monologic discourse outcomes across two high-intensity Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA) clinical trials. Aim 1 evaluated changes in theoretically motivated discourse outcomes representing lexical-semantic processing, lexical diversity, grammatical complexity, and discourse informativeness. Aim 2 explored the potential moderating role of nonlanguage cognitive factors (semantic memory, divided attention, and executive function) on discourse outcomes. Method: This study was a retrospective analysis of archival monologic discourse outcomes after intensive SFA for n = 60 (Aim 1) and a subset n = 44 (Aim 2). Outcome measures included lexical--semantic processing (% semantic errors), lexical diversity (moving average type--token ratio), grammatical complexity (mean utterance length), and discourse informativeness (% correct information units). Bayesian generalized mixed-effects models were used to examine changes across four study time points: enrollment, entry, exit, and 1-month follow-up. Results: The present study found no evidence for meaningful or statistically reliable improvements in monologue discourse performance after SFA when measured using standard, general-topic discourse stimuli. There was weak and inconsistent evidence that nonlanguage cognitive factors may play a role in moderating treatment response. Conclusions: These findings indicate a clear need to pair theoretically informed treatments designed to facilitate generalization to discourse with intentional measurement paradigms designed to capture it. Furthermore, there is a clear need to examine how established treatments, restorative or compensatory, can better facilitate generalization to discourse-level communication. These priorities are critical for meaningfully improving everyday communication and reducing the profound communication and psychosocial consequences of aphasia.
Descriptors: Aphasia, Verbal Communication, Speech Language Pathology, Therapy, Word Recognition, Naming, Outcomes of Treatment
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. 2200 Research Blvd #250, Rockville, MD 20850. Tel: 301-296-5700; Fax: 301-296-8580; e-mail: slhr@asha.org; Web site: http://jslhr.pubs.asha.org
Related Records: ED640260
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: US Department of Veterans Affairs, Rehabilitation Research and Development Service (RR&D); National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) (DHHS/NIH); National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) (DHHS/NIH)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: I01RX000832; 5R01DC01747504; TL1TR001858; F31DC01985301