The Influence of Phonomotor Treatment on Word Retrieval: Insights From Naming Errors

J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2019 Nov 22;62(11):4080-4104. doi: 10.1044/2019_JSLHR-L-19-0014. Epub 2019 Nov 4.

Abstract

Purpose An increasing number of anomia treatment studies have coupled traditional word retrieval accuracy outcome measures with more fine-grained analysis of word retrieval errors to allow for more comprehensive measurement of treatment-induced changes in word retrieval. The aim of this study was to examine changes in picture naming errors after phonomotor treatment. Method Twenty-eight individuals with aphasia received 60 hr of phonomotor treatment, an intensive, phoneme-based therapy for anomia. Confrontation naming was assessed pretreatment, immediately posttreatment, and 3 months posttreatment for trained and untrained nouns. Responses were scored for accuracy and coded for error type, and error proportions of each error type (e.g., semantic, phonological, omission) were compared: pre- versus posttreatment and pretreatment versus 3 months posttreatment. Results The group of treatment participants improved in whole-word naming accuracy on trained items and maintained their improvement. Treatment effects also generalized to untrained nouns at the maintenance testing phase. Additionally, participants demonstrated a decrease in proportions of omission and description errors on trained items immediately posttreatment. Conclusions Along with generalized improved whole-word naming accuracy, results of the error analysis suggest that a global (i.e., both lexical-semantic and phonological) change in lexical knowledge underlies the observed changes in confrontation naming accuracy following phonomotor treatment.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Anomia / therapy*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Language
  • Language Therapy / methods*
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Phonetics