An analysis of aphasic naming errors as an indicator of improved linguistic processing following phonomotor treatment

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of phonomotor treatment on the types of errors produced during a confrontation naming task for people with aphasia (PWA).

Ten PWA received 60 hr of phonomotor treatment across 6 weeks. Confrontation naming abilities were measured before and after treatment, and responses were coded as correct or incorrect. Incorrect responses were coded for error type. Paired t tests comparing pre-, post- and 3 months posttreatment naming accuracy and error type were performed.

Group data showed that naming accuracy on trained items improved significantly immediately post treatment, and gains were maintained 3 months later. Naming accuracy on untrained items did not show significant improvement immediately post treatment or 3 months later. Results of error type analysis were not significant. However, a decrease in omission errors and an increase in mixed errors were noted immediately post treatment for naming of untrained items.

Results suggest that intensive phonomotor treatment improved lexical-retrieval abilities and may have triggered a shift in linguistic processing, as indicated by a decrease in omission errors on trained items and an increase in mixed errors on untrained items.