Delayed Stimulus-Specific Improvements in Discourse Following Anomia Treatment Using an Intentional Gesture

Abstract

Purpose This study assesses how the addition of intentional, left hand gestures to an intensive treatment for anomia affects two types of discourse, picture description and responses to open-ended questions. Methods Fourteen people with aphasia completed treatment for anomia comprising 30 treatment sessions over three weeks. Seven participants also incorporated intentional left hand gestures into each treatment trial. Results Both groups demonstrated significant changes in trained items and improved naming of untrained items but no change in WAB-AQ scores. Changes in discourse were limited to the 3-month follow-up assessment. Several discourse measures showed significant improvements in the picture description task and declines during question responses. Additionally, the Gesture group produced more words at each assessment, while the No-Gesture group produced fewer words at each assessment. These patterns led to large improvements in picture descriptions and minimal declines in question responses in the Gesture group. In contrast, the No-Gesture group showed minimal improvements in picture descriptions and production declines in question responses relative to pre-treatment levels. Conclusions The intensive treatment protocol is a successful method for improving picture naming even of untrained items. We hypothesize that the intentional left hand gesture played an essential role in enabling generalization of treatment to discourse.

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