Can Drawing Enhance Word Retrieval Skills in Chronic Aphasia?

Abstract

Aphasia disrupts multiple language processes with anomia being one of the most common and persisting deficit. Individuals may use a variety of compensatory strategies to circumvent the problem, including writing, gesturing, and drawing (Farias, Davis, & Harrington, 2006). However, few formal programs have promoted drawing as a means to facilitate communication. Approaches available typically use drawing as a language substitute rather than as a catalyst for enhancing verbal expression (Sacchett, 2002) and there has been minimal focus on drawing as a compensatory strategy for word retrieval (Lyon, 1995). Furthermore, training usually emphasizes recognizing drawing rather than a format for information exchange (Morgan & Helm-Estabrooks, 1987; Sacchett, 2002). Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA) is a treatment approach based on the premise that although anomic individuals have difficulty retrieving words, ability to access semantic features of targets may be somewhat intact (Beeson, Holland, & Murray, 1995). The semantic system is accessed by producing words related to target words; in SFA, individuals incorporate these strategies as self-cues to retrieve target words (Boyle, 2004; Rider & Wright, 2008). To date, this approach has been used primarily to enhance verbal output only. Taylor and Hough (2013) used drawing to explore improvement of word retrieval skills in a woman with chronic mixed aphasia. Results revealed improvement in naming treatment pictures with some generalization to untreated stimuli as well as relevant increases on the Boston Naming Test-II (BNT-II) (Kaplan, Goodglass, & Weintraub, 2001). The current study extends investigation of drawing treatment to examine if two males with chronic nonfluent aphasia improved ability to name pictured objects through a drawing protocol. In individual single subject designs, HR and TE underwent brief but intense treatment, incorporating drawing with SFA to improve retrieval