Effects of semantic context on access to words of low imageability in deep-phonological dysphasia: a treatment case study.

Only one person was studied, so the results cannot show what would happen in most people with aphasia. The treatment package included adjective-noun phrase primes and repeated target-pair practice, so the contribution of either part cannot be separated. Repetition of untrained word pairs did not improve, so the approach did not show generalisation to words outside the treated sets. The non-cohesive phrase condition was variable and did not reach criterion, and the later cohesive phrase test of those items reached criterion during baseline, so the comparison was not clean. The Western Aphasia Battery was not administered immediately before treatment, so the change from 88.6 to 94.5 cannot be tied tightly to the treatment period. The person had a phonological dysphasia profile that evolved from deep dysphasia, so the treatment may not fit other aphasia types.

The authors reported no potential conflict of interest.

Do not conclude that cohesive adjective-noun phrase priming alone improves repetition for people with aphasia. This was one person, and the treatment also included repeated target-pair practice. Untrained word pairs did not improve.