Improved effects of word‐retrieval treatments subsequent to addition of the orthographic form

Abstract

Background: The participant, an individual with moderate–severe Wernicke's aphasia, had not benefited from two word‐retrieval cueing treatments in a previous investigation. The participant insisted that her performance would have been improved if the written word had been provided as part of the cueing process. This research was supported by Department of Veterans Affairs, Rehabilitation Research and Development. Aims: The purpose of this investigation was to examine the effects of adding the orthographic form of targeted action names to a semantic cueing treatment (SCT) and a phonologic cueing treatment (PCT). Methods & Procedures: The participant received SCT and PCT applied to the retrieval of action names. The treatments both provided the written word form paired with the pictured action in conjunction with cueing hierarchies. Two, sequential multiple baseline designs across behaviours were employed to examine the acquisition and response generalisation effects of treatment. Outcomes & Results: Improved accuracy of action naming was found for both treatments. Gains were limited to trained items; no changes were observed in naming of untrained actions. Conclusions: It appeared that the participant utilised the orthographic word form to develop associations between the visual object recognition system and the orthographic input lexicon, thus facilitating access to the phonological output lexicon.