Treatment of verbal short-term memory abilities to improve language function in aphasia: A case series treatment study.
Nadine Martin, Julie Schlesinger, Jessica Obermeyer and 2 others
PMID 32114906WHAT IT FOUND
Delayed repetition produced modest gains for three participants on the treated task, and only one maintained the gain at one month.
Concrete span improved for eight participants, but responses were mixed, so do not expect it to help all aphasia profiles.
Key findings
01On the treated delayed-repetition task, three participants showed small to medium immediate gains, and only one of those retained the gain at one month.
02On the broader concrete and abstract repetition test, five of eight participants had significant changes, with four improving and one worsening.
03Verbal span increased for concrete words in eight participants and for abstract words in five participants.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Eight participants with different aphasia profiles were not selected for a confirmed activation-maintenance deficit, so the study does not show who should receive this treatment. There was no control task, so improvement cannot be separated from practice, assessment effects, or natural variation. Far-transfer naming and discourse testing was not always completed close enough to treatment, and some participants were excluded or had incomplete post-treatment data. The treatment design tried to avoid repeated word exposure, but that made word frequency and phonotactic probability uncontrolled. Responses were inconsistent: some participants improved, some showed little change, and one worsened on a repetition condition. All participants were at least one year post-onset and mild to moderate, so results may not apply to acute or severe aphasia.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that delayed repetition is an effective aphasia treatment for all clients. This was an eight-participant case series with no control task, participants were not selected for a confirmed activation-maintenance deficit, and responses varied from improvement to no change to worsening on a repetition condition.