The efficacy of gestural cueing in dysphasic word-retrieval responses

The effectiveness of visual--gestural cueing as compared with traditional auditory--verbal cueing was investigated using a time-series design. Eight dysphasic adults equally divided into a control and an experimental group were the subjects for this study. Results indicated no significant improvement in response times after an intensive 2-wk treatment period. Similarly, no single cue was observed to be more effective than others in eliciting dysphasic word-retrieval responses. In contrast, there was a significant difference in the order in which different cues were presented. Findings indicated that regardless of cue type, the cue presented first was the most effective. The present discussion relates current findings to previous observations and reviews implications of the data for language rehabilitation in dysphasia.