Word Finding Deficits In Adults With Aphasia

Language is an ability that many of us take for granted in everyday life. For those with aphasia, it is a daily struggle to overcome and effective communication is a goal to strive for. Aphasia patients are able to think, perhaps as well as the average person, but they simply cannot convey their ideas or thoughts easily. The Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination is an excellent examination for the diagnosis of the presence and type of aphasia, and for the location of brain damage. The Minnesota Test for Differential Diagnosis of Aphasia has been shown to be the most comprehensive assessment of the overall patient’s strengths and weaknesses in regard to language; it also allows for physicians to predict recovery accurately. Though it is no longer as popular or applicable as newer diagnostic tests, such as the BDAE, it is still an accurate assessment for aphasia. I think this is the paradox in neurological assessment: as technological advances improve, older assessments are becoming invalidated- though they are not inaccurate assessments. New advances and knowledge are being acquired in medicine every day, therefore there is always room for improvement (Holland, 2008). One of the biggest cons to the two batteries I mentioned in this paper is the fact that they are both time consuming- for both the patient and the

Theories of language learning can further be broken into theories for speech-sound errors and treatment for these disorders. One of these theories is sensory-perceptual theory with sound production training. This relates to errors due caused by a breakdown in sensory and motor systems of individual sound units (Peña-Brooks & Hedge, 2015). In contrast, the phonological theory suggests errors unrelated to motor skill but, instead, to misrepresentations of phonological rules (MacReynolds, 1987). While neither approach has proven to be most effective in the generalization of correct productions of speech sounds, this paper will be using the sensory-perceptual theory of language acquisition.

Standardized and nonstandardized methods are used to screen oral motor functions, speech production skills, comprehension, written language, and cognitive aspects of communication. Screenings typically focus on body structures and functions, (ASHA, 2016). Strengths and weaknesses related to spoken and written language are determined along with noticing how the effects of the language disorder impact the individual’s activities and participation in everyday context (e.g., social interactions, work activities). This is important for the person with aphasia’s quality of life which is targeted in the treatment. The individual’s areas

would help to facilitate word recognition. The evidence also suggests that in most cases deficits in phonological skills associated with the ability to use speech codes are likely causes of dyslexia. Definitions of phonological processing are complex, Arrow (2016) defines

The article “A ROWS is a ROSE: Spelling, sound, and reading” Van Orden researches the effects of stimulus word phonology. This study was design to find out whether when a homophonic word was placed in a category whether the participant could identify the “homophone foils.” The procedure was as follows: participants were seated in front of a Gerbrands B1128 Harvard Model T-3A tachistoscope

Jane’s raw score (number right) of 48 words on the pretest for the Slosson Oral Reading Test (SORT), placed her at the 41st percentile. Her score at the 41st percentile is considered to be in the middle part of the average range. Jane’s miscues were visually similar to the printed words up to List 2. For example, she confused “there” for “three,” and “wat” for “what,” suggesting the need for reinforcement of irregular high frequency words. She also substituted “brother” for “better,” and “drink” for “dark,” suggesting Jane attended to the beginning and ending sounds, but had difficulty with medial sounds and short vowels. Jane also substituted “log” for “large,” and “hop” for “hope,” further demonstrating a need for instruction on medial

Ashlyn’s raw score (number right) of 91 words on the pretest for the Slosson Oral Reading Test (SORT) placed her at the 48 percentile. She placed slightly below average. Ashlyn’s miscues were visually similar to the target words. For example, she substituted “him” for “hill,” “timud” for “timid,” and “disire” for “desire” suggesting that Ashlyn was able to produce the beginning and ending sounds however she had a difficult time with medial vowel sounds. Intervention will focus on vowel sounds and vowel teams.

This article is about the development of phonological awareness. Phonological awareness is one of the three phonological processing abilities; the other two are phonological memory and phonological access to lexical storage. Phonological processing is the processing of the sounds of one’s native language. Phonological awareness is the degree of sensitivity to the sound structure of oral language; it is a critical component for learning to read alphabetic languages such as French. Phonological memory is when you code information in a sound based representational system for temporary storage; phonological access to lexical storage is the efficiency of retrieving phonological codes from memory. One of the causes of dyslexia is difficulty with

Aphasia is a language disorder that can be the result of a brain injury. An individual that is suffering from aphasia may experience difficulty speaking, writing, reading, or comprehending. There are three different types of Aphasia that differ in various ways. First, Wernicke’s Aphasia is the inability to grasp the meaning of words and sentences that have been produced by another individual. This type of aphasia is also known as “fluent aphasia” or “receptive aphasia”. Wernicke patients’ speech may come across like a jumble of words or jargon, but it is very well articulated and they have no issue producing their own connected speech. If the patient is consecutively making errors, it is common for them to be unaware of their difficulties, and not realize that their sentences don’t make sense. The severity of the disorder varies depending on the patient, and the disorder results form damage in the left posterior temporal region of the brain, which is also known as Wernicke’s area.

Anomia emerges in the early stages of PPA, most patients remain in the anomic phase through most of the disease and experience a gradual worsening of these deficits over time. During the anomic stage, the naming of objects may become impaired and speech may display a choppy quality because of frequent pauses for word-finding. The word-finding and object naming aspects of anomia may present separate from each other. Word-finding deficits lead to simplification, circumlocution, substitution by fillers, and paraphasias. Simplification occurs when a patient uses a general word instead of an infrequent but more appropriate word. Circumlocution occurs when a patient appears to be “talking in circles” by circuitously articulating a thought when the concise word cannot be retrieved. Substitution by fillers occur when an individual says “the thing” or “the place” as an alternative to the missing word. Paraphasias occur when an individual substitutes incorrect words. Paraphasias can be phonemic (replacement of an incorrectly sounding word) or semantic (replacement of sounds within a word). Phonemic paraphasias are common in PPA but rare in AD. Word finding deficits may lead to “empty” speech which presents with typical intonation and fluency but expresses little information. Over the course of progression of PPA, the anomic stage may develop into one of the distinct four categories of PPA

Does a 65 year adult with aphasia after a CVA and who receives therapy involving gesture, drawing or writing of the first letter, have less word finding difficulties and reduced time it takes to find the words, compared to therapy involving a combination of all three?

This Aphasia Battery Picture Naming Test is a test that will measure whether language was recovered following therapy (See Appendix A for Picture Naming Test). Both groups will be taking this test. This test will consist of 30 items and the participants will be told to tell the examiner the name of each picture and will be given 20 seconds to identify each picture. If in the first attempt to name the picture the participant fails, the examiner may give a phonemic clue. So, overall the participants will be given two chances to correctly identify the name of the picture. Language recovery will be measured by naming 18 pictures correctly out of the 30. Through random assignment, the results from both the groups will be compared to one another to determine how quickly and which language do bilingual aphasics recovers first; their native language (L1) or their secondary language (L2), following their therapy. Furthermore, before participants leave, they will be thanked for their participation on this study, and will be given information about what the study was

The body function domain refers to the behavior that is affected by the individual’s communication impairment. In the case of an individual with Anomia who has word retrieval deficits, the deficit is what affects the body function domain. As a clinician, we can improve the body function domain by working on word finding tasks through treatment. For word finding deficits, treatments such as semantic feature analysis (SFA) have evidence to support the efficacy of the treatment (Boyle, 2004). Through direct treatment targeting the patient’s word finding deficits, the clinician can improve the patient’s quality of life.

can address these detrimental effects of aphasia is partner training. Two specific types of partner

The purpose of this paper is to pursue one important and fundamental aim: language and the brain are purely inseparable since it allows us to perform essential tasks such as generating, comprehending and expressing speech. With damage to the brain, individuals can no longer perform such tasks which can ultimately lead to many types of language disorders. The focus of this paper is Broca’s aphasia, a language disorder characterized by the inability to produce written and spoken speech. Damage to the brain can cause many types of speech impairments as well as comprehension deficits.