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Does Naming Therapy Make Ordering in a Restaurant Easier? Dynamics of Co-Occurring Change in Cognitive-Linguistic and
Erin L Meier1, Jeffrey P Johnson1, Sarah Villard1
1Aphasia Research Laboratory, Sargent College, Boston University, Boston, MA.
Purpose:
This study was conducted to investigate the static and dynamic relationships between impairment-level cognitive-linguistic abilities and activity-level functional communication skills in persons with aphasia (PWA).
Method:
In Experiment 1, a battery of standardized assessments was administered to a group of PWA (N = 72) to examine associations between cognitive-linguistic ability and functional communication at a single time point. In Experiment 2, impairment-based treatment was administered to a subset of PWA from Experiment 1 (n = 39) in order to examine associations between change in cognitive-linguistic ability and change in function and associations at a single time point.
Results:
In both experiments, numerous significant associations were found between scores on tests of cognitive-linguistic ability and a test of functional communication at a single time point. In Experiment 2, significant treatment-induced gains were seen on both types of measures in participants with more severe aphasia, yet cognitive-linguistic change scores were not significantly correlated with functional communication change scores.
Conclusions:
At a single time point, cognitive-linguistic and functional communication abilities are associated in PWA. However, although changes on standardized assessments reflecting improvements in both types of skills can occur following an impairment-based therapy, these changes may not be significantly associated with each other.
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