Facilitating sentence formulation: a case study.

A training program was designed to facilitate sentence formulation in a Broca's aphasic patient. Two training methods were compared and generalization to untrained stimuli was measured. Training, using either method, resulted in increased production of correct linguistic constituents and appropriate lexical items. Gains tended to occur on the trained items and generalization to untrained items was limited.     

Nonword repetition and sentence repetition as clinical markers of specific language impairment: the case of Cantonese.

PURPOSE: Recent research suggests that nonword repetition (NWR) and sentence repetition (SR) tasks can be used to discriminate between children with SLI and their typically developing age-matched (TDAM) and younger (TDY) peers. METHOD: Fourteen Cantonese-speaking children with SLI and 30 of their TDAM and TDY peers were compared on NWR and SR tasks. NWR of IN nonwords (CV combinations attested in the language) and OUT nonwords (CV combinations unattested in the language) were compared. SR performance was compared using 4 different scoring methods. RESULTS: The SLI group did not score significantly lower than the TDAM group on the test of NWR (overall results were TDAM = SLI > TDY). There were nonsignificant group differences on IN syllables but not on OUT syllables. The results do not suggest a limitation in phonological working memory in Cantonese-speaking children with SLI. The SR task discriminated between children and their TDAM peers but not between children with SLI and their TDY peers matched for mean length of utterance. CONCLUSIONS: SR but not NWR discriminates between children with SLI and their TDAM peers. Poorer NWR for English-speaking children with SLI might be attributable to weaker use of the redintegration strategy in word repetition. Further cross-linguistic investigations of processing strategies are required.     

Traumatic aphasia in children: A case study

Traumatic aphasia in children has been recognized as a distinct clinical pathology, differing from adult aphasia in symptomatology and course of recovery. The upper limit for complete recovery has been identified as age 10. However, there is a paucity of literature documenting recovery of children with traumatic aphasia. It is apparent that definitive statements of the upper age limit for complete recovery from traumatic aphasia in children cannot be made at this time. This article reviews the literature concerning traumatic aphasia and presents case information of a 10-year-old traumatic aphasic girl seen at the North Texas State University Speech and Hearing Center. The design, execution, and assessment of therapeutic interaction and the observed language abilities of the client are reported.     

Subcortical crossed aphasia: a case report

A 74-year-old, right-handed woman suffered acute aphasia and left hemiplegia secondary to a cerebral infarction in the right cerebral hemisphere. The lesion was located deep in the parietal lobe and extended to the posterior limb of the internal capsule and the head of the caudate nucleus. The patient's aphasia was characterized by severe impairment in auditory and visual comprehension and auditory retention span, as well as by anomia, agraphia, and dyscalculia. She showed rapid recovery from her aphasia, with residual deficits in writing, naming, calculation, and memory.     

Category-specific treatment of a lexical-semantic deficit: a single case study of global aphasia

The aim of this study was to improve the comprehension of single items in a subject with global aphasia. Existing models of semantic organisation were used to inform and guide the treatment programme. Detailed pre-therapy testing suggested a severe comprehension deficit with an inability to obtain a precise semantic specification of the items, irrespective of modality of input. A category-specific hierarchical treatment programme including generic and specific details about items was implemented through various exercises and drills. Post-therapy testing revealed a significant improvement on treated and untreated items of treated categories but limited generalisation to items in untreated categories. Improvement in the subject's general semantic abilities was also documented following treatment. The results, which are shown to be a direct consequence of the intervention programme, lend support to the categorical and hierarchical view of the organisation of semantics and provide a basis for future rehabilitation studies in this area.     

Sound stimulation via bone conduction for tinnitus relief: a pilot study

For some patients suffering from tinnitus, an external sound stimulator can offer some mitigation. Based on our positive experience with the bone-anchored hearing aid (BAHA), it seems possible to transmit a masking or habituating sound via bone conduction. A potential advantage of bone-conducted sound is that it is transmitted to the cochlea without affecting the normal hearing via the external and middle ear. The present pilot study, on patients who use a conventional BAHA and who experience mild-to-moderate tinnitus, shows that bone-conducted sound has the potential to relieve tinnitus in the same way as air-conducted sound. It was also found that these patients, having a significant conduction hearing loss, required conventional sound amplification via a BAHA simultaneously with the stimulus provided by the bone-anchored sound stimulator (BASS). Further studies on patients with more severe tinnitus must be conducted in order to justify the use of a BASS for tinnitus relief.     

Cognition and aphasia: a discussion and a study

The relation between other aspects of cognition and language status of individuals with aphasia is not well-established, although there is some evidence that integrity of non-linguistic skills of attention, memory, executive function and visuospatial skills can not be predicted on the basis of aphasia severity. At the same time, there is a growing realization among rehabilitation specialists, based on clinical experience and preliminary studies, that all domains of cognition are important to aphasia therapy outcomes. This paper describes a new study of the relation between linguistic and nonlinguistic skill in a group of individuals with aphasia. No significant relationship was found between linguistic and nonlinguistic skills, and between nonlinguistic skills and age, education or time post onset. Instead, individual profiles of strengths and weaknesses were found. The implications of these findings for management of aphasia patients is discussed. Learning outcomes: Readers of this papers will be able to: list five primary domains of cognition and relate each to an aspect of aphasia therapy; describe at least three studies that examined the relation between cognition and aphasia; describe four nonlinguistic tasks of cognition that can be used with a wide range of aphasia patients.     

Nonword repetition: a comparison of tests.

PURPOSE: This study compared performance of children on 2 tests of nonword repetition to investigate the factors that may contribute to the well-documented nonword repetition deficit in specific language impairment (SLI). METHOD: Twelve children with SLI age 7 to 11 years, 12 age-matched control children, and 12 control children matched for language ability completed 2 tests of nonword repetition: the Children's Test of Nonword Repetition (CNRep) and the Nonword Repetition Test (NRT). RESULTS: The children with SLI performed significantly more poorly on both tests than typically developing children of the same age. The SLI group was impaired on the CNRep but not the NRT relative to younger children with similar language abilities when adjustments were made for differences in general cognitive ability. The children with SLI repeated the lengthiest nonwords and the nonwords containing consonant clusters significantly less accurately than the control groups. CONCLUSION: The evidence suggests that the nonword repetition deficit in SLI may arise from a number of factors, including verbal short-term memory, lexical knowledge, and output processes.     

An aphasia group intensive efficacy study.

The response of five adults with chronic aphasia to a 4-week intensive treatment course is presented. Using four language tests, pre-intervention stability was demonstrated over the month preceding the treatment programme. Following the intervention period, two subjects showed improvement in one test, and more widespread changes occurred in three subjects. On further assessment 1 month after treatment had finished, one of the two subjects who had made least progress performed better than at the end of the course, and one had returned to pre-treatment level. Although there were indications of regression in two of the three other subjects, this was not to pre-treatment level. Only one subject maintained the gains made fully. Given the short duration of the course, the changes in performance noted suggest that, providing transport is available, intensive treatment of aphasia should be available to patients with sufficient motivation and stamina.     

Administering audiometric speech tests via bone conduction: a comparison of transducers

This study compared the intelligibility of speech delivered via three transducers: a TDH-39 earphone, a Pracitronic KH 70 bone vibrator, and a Radioear B-72 bone vibrator. CID W-1 spondees were presented to normal-hearing listeners via each transducer over a range of intensity levels. Functions relating the percentage of spondees correctly identified to stimulus level were similar for the three transducers, and notably, their slopes were comparable. This suggests that it is appropriate to use the W-1 word lists to determine speech reception thresholds (SRTs) with the KH 70 and B-72 bone vibrators, even though these word lists were originally developed for testing by air conduction. Our subjects also identified NU-6 monosyllabic words equally well for each transducer when the words were delivered at 40 dB above SRT. This result suggests that it is also valid to deliver the NU 6 speech test via the two types of bone vibrators.