Semantic vs. word-form specific techniques in anomia treatment: A multiple single-case study

This study compared a semantic and a phonological/orthographic approach to the treatment of word-finding difficulties in a caseseries of ten individuals with aphasia, using a cross-over design. The study aims to investigate whether one approach is generally more effective than the other or whether the effectiveness of the two treatments relates systematically to the nature of the underlying functional impairment within the framework of a modular single-word processing model. In both treatments, the main task was spoken naming of pictured objects with different types of cues. In the semantic approach, different aspects of the target semantic concept were used as a cue in picture naming, while in the word-form method, both phonological and orthographic information were provided as a cue. Treatment effects were assessed in terms of both shortand longlasting effects on spokenpicture naming accuracy in each participant after the endof each treatment phase. Here, both item-specific effects and a possible generalisation to untreated pictures were considered. In addition, the immediate effects of the phonological and the semantic prompts were analysed. With regard to the cue effects on immediate naming, the wordform specific cues proved stronger than the semantic cues. The semantic treatment phase on the other hand, produced more stable effects than the word-form specific phase in some participants. A direct relationship between specific treatment effects and underlying functional deficit pattern was not confirmed for all subjects, i.e. participants with post-semantic anomia benefited from the semantic approach and participants with semantic anomia benefited from the phonological/orthographic approach. * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ49 331 977 2531; fax: þ49 331 977 2095. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (A. Lorenz), [email protected] (W. Ziegler).