Exploring the efficacy of melodic intonation therapy with Broca's aphasia in Arabic.
Khalid G Al-Shdifat, Jawdat Sarsak, Fatoon A Ghareeb
PMID 29943587WHAT IT FOUND
One Jordanian Arabic-speaking man with severe Broca's aphasia improved accuracy on treated automatic and self-generated phrases after intensive melodic intonation therapy.
His family-rated communication and quality-of-life scores rose, but this is one person, not proof MIT works.
Key findings
01The participant reached the accuracy criterion for treated automatic phrases and maintained gains during maintenance and follow-up.
02Self-generated phrases did not improve during baseline while automatic phrases were treated, but the participant reached criterion once they were treated.
03Untreated generalisation phrases began improving gradually only after self-generated phrases were targeted.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study tracked only one person, so it cannot show that melodic intonation therapy works for other Arabic-speaking patients with aphasia. The participant had already received conventional speech therapy before starting MIT, so the study cannot separate his improvement from that earlier therapy. It followed one person over time rather than comparing him with another group, and only one variation of MIT was used. The Bilingual Aphasia Test was administered only before and after treatment, so one administration at each time cannot give a solid conclusion. The participant was from one Arabic dialect and country, and the authors say larger studies in different Arabic-speaking countries are needed. The phrases were selected with input from the participant's family, and one family member completed the CETI.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that MIT is effective for Arabic-speaking patients with Broca's aphasia. This is one person, and the study did not test MIT against another treatment, so his improvement cannot be assigned to MIT alone.