Variety Matters: Measuring Semantic Verb Types in Conversation Following ECoLoGiC Treatment for People With Moderate...

Expanding Communication and Language Opportunities Generated in Conversation Treatment (ECoLoGiC-Tx) is a conversation treatment designed to improve the everyday language abilities of people with moderate-to-severe aphasia. Previous research reported improved use of basic syntactic structures during posttreatment conversations. Although ECoLoGic-Tx does not specifically target verb use, it may change the frequency and/or types of verbs used during conversation. Semantic verb type analysis categorizes verbs by their intended meaning. Each of the five semantic verb types serves a unique function during discourse, and difficulty using verbs within and across semantic categories may limit what is shared during everyday interactions. Because verbs play an essential role in conversation, this study explores if ECoLoGiC-Tx changed the frequency and semantic categories of verbs used by people with aphasia (PWA).

Ten PWA attended 60-min treatment sessions twice weekly for 10 weeks. Conversational discourse samples were collected three times at each assessment phase (pretreatment, posttreatment, and maintenance). Samples were analyzed for overall verb frequency and semantic verb types. Stability of pretreatment measures and intrarater and interrater reliability were calculated.

Immediately following treatment, overall verb use increased for four participants with nonfluent aphasia and decreased for three participants with fluent aphasia. Semantic verb type use varied across participants, and no participant showed consistent increases across semantic categories. Several participants demonstrated continued gains at 6 weeks posttreatment, and increased verb diversity within semantic categories was also observed.

ECoLoGiC-Tx may change how PWA use verbs. This study provides additional evidence that ECoLoGiC-Tx may generalize to aspects of communication not explicitly targeted during treatment.