title: Aphasia rehabilitation: does generalisation from anomia therapy occur and is it predictable? A case series study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The majority of adults with acquired aphasia have anomia which can respond to rehabilitation with cues. However, the literature and clinical consensus suggest change is usually limited to treated items. We investigated the effect of an experimentally controlled intervention using progressive cues in the rehabilitation of noun retrieval/production in 16 participants with chronic aphasia.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were sub-divided relative to the group according to performance on semantic tasks (spoken/written word to picture matching) and phonological output processing (presence/absence of word length effect and proportion of phonological errors in picture naming) in order to investigate outcome in relation to language profile. Cueing therapy took place weekly for 8 weeks.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Intervention resulted in significant improvement on naming treated items for 15/16 participants, with stable performance on control tasks. Change occurred at the point of intervention and not during pre-therapy assessments. We predicted particular patterns of generalisation which were upheld. Only participants classified as having relatively less of a semantic difficulty and more of a phonological output deficit demonstrated generalisation to untreated items. Outcome did not relate to traditional aphasia classification.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A cueing hierarchy can improve word retrieval/production for adults with aphasia. In some cases generalisation to untreated items also occurs. The study demonstrates that the results of behavioural testing can be used to guide predictions of recovery with intervention.
authors.affiliation: Psychology & Language Sciences, UCL, London, UK. Electronic address: w.best@ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Best
authors.forename: Alison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Greenwood
authors.forename: Jennie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Grassly
authors.forename: Ruth
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Herbert
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hickin
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Howard
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000849:Anomia / Q000534:rehabilitation* / Q000628:therapy; D001037:Aphasia / Q000534:rehabilitation* / Q000628:therapy; D001519:Behavior; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D005793:Generalization, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007808:Language Therapy / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012660:Semantics; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis
keywords: Anomia; Aphasia; Generalisation; Rehabilitation; Therapy