Background: Aphasia is an acquired language disorder that makes it difficult for people to produce and comprehend language, with every person with aphasia (PWA) demonstrating difficulty accessing and selecting words (anomia). While aphasia treatments typically focus on a single aspect of language, such as word retrieval, the ultimate goal of aphasia therapy is to improve communication, which is best seen at the level of discourse.
Aims: This retrospective study investigated the effects of one effective anomia therapy, Phonomotor Treatment, on discourse production.
Methods & procedures: Twenty-six PWA participated in 60 hours of Phonomotor Treatment, which focuses on building a person's ability to recognise, produce, and manipulate phonemes in progressively longer non-word and real-word contexts. Language samples were collected prior to, immediately after, and three months after the treatment program. Percent Correct Information Units (CIUs) and CIUs per minute were calculated.
Outcomes & results: Overall, PWA showed significantly improved CIUs per minute, relative to baseline, immediately after treatment and three months later, as well as significantly improved percent CIUs, relative to baseline, three months following treatment.
Conclusions: Phonomotor Treatment, which focuses on phonological processing, can lead to widespread improvement throughout the language system, including to the functionally critical level of discourse production.
Keywords: anomia; aphasia; discourse; phonology; treatment.