Clinical Question

What are the effective therapy techniques currently being used to improve auditory comprehension deficits in people with aphasia?

Critically Appraised Topic

Auditory comprehension deficits may benefit from specific speech therapy treatment techniques. Which treatment task is appropriate will depend on the level of breakdown in auditory comprehension. Direct therapy using a multimodal approach (including auditory word, semantic cues, written word, pictures and gestures) may be beneficial in improving auditory comprehension of the treated items in individuals with semantic impairments. There is some suggestion that severe impairments in auditory discrimination (word sound deafness) may be hard to remediate, but that family training regarding the use of compensatory strategies may lead to significant functional gains, including decreased number of communication breakdowns in conversation. Reviewed publications were single case studies which may indicate a need for further studies with a greater number of subjects. PDF Format

Critically Appraised Papers

Behrmann, M. & Lieberthal, T. (1989). Category-specific treatment of a lexical-semantic deficit: A single case study of global aphasia. British Journal of Disorders of Communication, 24, 281-299

Grayson, E., Hillton, R. & Franklin, S. (1997). Early intervention in a case of jargon aphasia: efficacy of language comprehension therapy. European Journal of Disorders of Communication, 32, 257-276

Maneta, A., Marshall, J., & Lindsay, J. (2001). Direct and indirect therapy for word sound deafness. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 36(1): 91-106