Keywords

aphasia, treatment, abstract, concreteness, verbs

Abstract

Purpose

Verb production impairments in aphasia have important implications for sentence production and communication in general. Verbs with low concreteness may be especially important for certain functional uses, and yet limited data regarding their response to treatment are available. This study was designed to examine a novel behavioral treatment approach to improve low concreteness verb naming in persons with aphasia.

Method

Three persons with nonfluent aphasia participated in a single-subject experimental design research study examining the feasibility of the novel treatment. The treatment was based on approaches that target the verb as the central node of meaning during sentence construction. The primary outcome measure was a sentence completion probe. Effects on untreated stimuli and on general language and naming assessments were also examined.

Results

Results indicated some limited changes associated with the treatment for two of the participants. Treatment performance data suggested possible improvements in verb processing that were not reflected in the primary outcome measure. Modest decreases in aphasia severity were noted for two of the participants.

Conclusions

The findings provide further support for targeting verbal production of verbs with low concreteness in aphasia. Several lessons learned may benefit future researchers examining areas related to the topic.

Original Publication Citation

Bailey, D. J., Bunker, L., & Wambaugh, J. L. (2024). Feasibility of an abstract verb naming treatment for aphasia. Aphasiology, 38(7), 1303-1329. https://doi.org/10.1080/02687038.2023.2279180

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2023-11-13

Publisher

Aphasiology

Language

English

College

David O. McKay School of Education

Department

Communication Disorders

University Standing at Time of Publication

Associate Professor

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