Online therapy practitioners working with aphasia patients often face challenges in improving sentence production. A study titled "A Modular Treatment for Sentence Processing Impairments in Aphasia: Sentence Production" by Elizabeth Rochon and Sonia Reichman provides valuable insights that can be applied in online therapy settings.
This study investigated a modular approach to treating sentence production impairments in an individual with aphasia. The treatment was divided into two modules: the first focused on training single verb naming, and the second on sentence production. The sentence production module incorporated principles from grammatical frame therapy and mapping therapy.
Here are some key findings and implications for online therapy practitioners:
- Modular Approach: The study's modular treatment approach demonstrated that while verb naming training improved single verb retrieval, it did not generalize to sentence production. However, training sentence production directly led to improvements in producing both passive and active sentences.
- Grammatical Frame Therapy: This therapy focuses on training the morphological elements associated with verb tense and aspect, helping participants construct a 'planning frame' for sentence production. This approach was effective in improving sentence production in the study.
- Mapping Therapy: Mapping therapy helps patients link the abstract functional level of sentence structure with surface syntax. This approach was used successfully to improve the production of passive sentences in the study.
- Generalization of Skills: The study found that while specific sentence types (e.g., passive sentences) could be trained successfully, there was limited generalization to untrained sentence types (e.g., active sentences). This suggests that explicit training for each sentence type may be necessary.
For practitioners, incorporating these findings into online therapy sessions can enhance treatment outcomes for aphasia patients. Consider adopting a modular approach, using grammatical frame and mapping therapies, and focusing on explicit training for different sentence types.
To read the original research paper, please follow this link: A Modular Treatment for Sentence Processing Impairments in Aphasia: Sentence Production
