title: The Auditory Language Comprehension Programme: a description and case study.
abstract: The Auditory Language Comprehension Programme is a Dutch therapy programme at the word level, especially developed for severely aphasic patients. The programme consists of 420 items divided over three parts. Each item consists of a target word and three distractors. One spoken target word at a time is presented to the patient who has to choose one out of four pictures. The number of related distractors is varied: each part starts with items in which the distractors bear no resemblance to the target; later on, one, two and then all three distractors are related to the target. The nature of relatedness is dependent on the different levels in the programme. In part 1, the phonological level, there is a correspondence in sound; in part 2, the semantic level, a correspondence in meaning; in part 3, the complement, there is a phonological correspondence, a combination of phonological and semantic correspondence, or a lexical-morphological correspondence. The levels are hierarchically built, according to the principles of programmed instruction. In order to show how a therapist may apply this programme, a case study is presented. The patient, who developed aphasia after traumatic brain injury, was trained on the semantic level. Both his performance and our therapy methods will be described and evaluated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Linguistics, University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bastiaanse
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nijboer
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Taconis
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001037:Aphasia / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D007808:Language Therapy; D008297:Male