Semantic Feature Analysis as a Functional Therapy Tool

Abstract

Semantic feature analysis (SFA) is a therapeutic technique that is used for the treatment of naming deficits occurring with aphasia. Aphasia commonly impairs a person's ability to retrieve words easily, and speechlanguage pathologists (SLPs) often struggle to determine an effective means of facilitating this skill. SFA has been shown to improve naming of targeted items with generalization to control stimuli. SFA also teaches the individual with aphasia a process for accessing semantic networks and for self-cueing. This project examined the use of SFA to address naming deficits and measured the impact of SFA on connected speech output with an individual with moderate aphasia with both expressive and receptive components. The study was conducted in two phases: The first stage examined improvements in naming skills, and the second stage assessed improvements in connected speech. This individual demonstrated improvements in naming for trained and untrained stimuli and also increased in measures of connected speech from baseline over a 17-month period. The usefulness of SFA for practicing SLPs in the current health care service delivery system is discussed.

A Systematic Review of Semantic Feature Analysis Therapy Studies for Aphasia

“…The studies cover six different research areas. Nine studies investigated SFA with confrontation naming of nouns (Boyle, 2004;Boyle & Coelho 1995;Coelho, McHugh & Boyle, 2000;Davis & Stanton, 2005;DeLong, Nessler, Wright, & Wambaugh, 2015;Hashimoto & Frome, 2011;Massaro & Tompkins, 1994;Mehta & Isaki, 2016;Rider, Wright, Marshall, & Page, 2008). Two studies examined SFA with confrontation naming of verbs (Wambaugh & Ferguson, 2007;Wambaugh, Mauszycki, &Wright, 2014) and a further two tested SFA with confrontation naming of nouns and verbs (Kristensson, Behrns, & Saldert, 2015;Marcotte & Ansaldo, 2010).…”

Efficacy of elaborated semantic features analysis in Aphasia: a quasi-randomised controlled trial

“…This is an important finding that adds to current knowledge on maintenance of gains after SFA. In a recent systematic review of SFA studies (Efstratiadou et al, 2018), maintenance was reported for 58.18% of participants, but most of the included studies assessed maintenance in the short term, with only 2/21 studies assessing maintenance at 3 months or longer post therapy and only 1/4 participants in these two studies showing a positive effect (Davis & Stanton, 2005;Kristensson, Behrns & Saldert, 2015). Lastly, significant others perceived an improvement on participants' functional communicational skills at the follow-up assessment.…”

Semantic Treatments for Word and Sentence Production Deficits in Aphasia

“…Almost all participants (19 of 23) who received SFA treatment maintained naming above baseline levels at follow-up testing, which occurred from 1 month to 1 year posttreatment. [33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43] A recent evidence-based systematic review of SFA reported that of 18 studies considered for review, 7 were eliminated because they combined SFA with other therapy methods or because they hybridized the SFA protocol. 44 Eight of the 11 remaining studies reported generalization of improved naming to untreated items.…”

“…44 Eight of the 11 remaining studies reported generalization of improved naming to untreated items. [33][34][35][36]40,41,43,45 All eight studies used imageable nouns as treatment targets and required participants to generate five to six semantic features for a target. Of the three studies that reported no generalization, one included treatment targets that were abstract (e.g., piece, charge, ingredients), 42 another focused solely on verbs, 46 and the third restricted participants to generating only three features per target.…”

“…Although not all SFA studies have assessed changes in structured discourse that reflect improved word retrieval posttreatment, such changes have been reported in most studies that assessed it. 33,34,36,43,45 Some investigations have used SFA treatment in a discourse (rather than a confrontation naming) context. The specific methodologies have varied.…”