The Effect of Computerized Verb Network Strengthening Treatment on Lexical Retrieval in Aphasia

Furnas, Daniel Wade and Edmonds, Lisa A. (2013) The Effect of Computerized Verb Network Strengthening Treatment on Lexical Retrieval in Aphasia. [Clinical Aphasiology Paper]

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Abstract

Most treatment for people with chronic aphasia relies on face-to-face treatment in a clinical setting. However, some people with aphasia may not have access to outpatient centers or transportation. As computers become more prevalent, their usefulness as a therapy tool also increases. Effective computerized telerehabilitation removes transportation concerns while improving the patient’s computer skills, which are vital for modern communication. Many computerized treatments have been developed for chronic aphasia (Adrian, Gonzalez, Buiza & Sage, 2011; Katz, 2010), including some with promising results, but few have been used via telerehabilitation, so participants must still travel to receive treatment. The purpose of the current study was to adapt Verb Network Strengthening Treatment (VNeST) (Edmonds & Babb, 2011; Edmonds, Nadeau, & Kiran, 2009), a treatment to aid lexical retrieval in sentence context, for computer use. This Computerized VNeST program (VNeST-C) was used to adminster VNeST via the Internet, allowing the participant to receive treatment without transportation concerns. This study also allowed us to integrate typing of responses into the treatment, thereby potentially improving lexical retrieval in spoken and typing modalities. Specifically, this study sought to answer three research questions: Will treatment result in improvement in pre- to post-treatment changes in 1) sentence description of pictures containing trained and untrained semantically related verbs in both typed and spoken modalities, 2) confrontation naming of nouns and verbs in typed and spoken modalities, 3) sections of the Western Aphasia Battery - Revised.

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