About this trial
This research aims to explore the relative efficacy of Verbal-only and GVT on naming difficulty in Cantonese-speaking people with aphasia (PWA).
The primary research question in this study is: "For Cantonese-speaking people with aphasia, what are the relative effects of verbal treatment compared to gesture plus verbal treatment (GVT) on verbal and gesture naming at different levels?"
People with aphasia will be engaged in a repeated measures experimental design. Participants will be engaged in two phases of training. In the first phase, participants will be assigned to receive verbal-only treatment. To minimize and prevent the carry-over effects caused by the first intervention, a one-month washout period will be implemented before the start of the second phase. After a washout period, participants will switch to GVT in the second phase.
Eligibility criteria
This trial does not accept healthy volunteersQualifiers
Diagnosed with aphasia
Demonstrate Word finding Difficulty (WFD)
Able to repeat single words
Normal (or corrected) vision and hearing
Disqualifiers
A history of other neurological disorders
With the above moderate to severe or severe motor speech impairment
With moderate to severe apraxia of speech
With very mild or very severe aphasia
Trial design
Sequential
Treatments tested in this trial
Verbal treatment
BehavioralThis study will involve the following naming interventions: 1) Semantic Features Analysis, 2) Modified Ortho-phonological cueing therapy and Phonological Component Analysis, and 3) Repetition with Cueing Hierarchy.
Gesture plus verbal treatment
BehavioralThis study will involve the following interventions: 1\) Combined Semantic and Gesture treatment, 2) Combined Phonological and Gesture treatment, and 3) Combined Repetition and Gesture treatment.
Treatment groups
Trial outcomes
Primary outcomes
Changes in the scores of the Naming Probes
The treatment effects on naming will be assessed through verbal naming and gesture production using the black and white drawing naming task. Responses will be counted as correct if they can be identified by the rater as the target word in verbal naming and convey the depicted concept through gesture production, even if the articulation or hand and arm movements are slightly distorted.
Secondary outcomes
Changes in the scores of the Cantonese Aphasia Battery
The Cantonese Aphasia Battery was conducted to evaluate improvements in various linguistic measures (e.g., question comprehension, step commands, repetition, etc.). The minimum and maximum values are 0 and 100, respectively, with higher scores indicating a better outcome.
Changes in the scores of the Comprehensive Aphasia Test
The Comprehensive Aphasia Test will be conducted to evaluate improvements in various cognitive and linguistic measures (e.g., semantic memory, word fluency, auditory comprehension, etc.). There are different subtests in the assessment, with a minimum value of 0, and maximum values ranging from 70 to 130, with higher scores indicating a better outcome.
Changes in the scores of the Cantonese Boston Naming Test
The Cantonese Boston Naming Test will be conducted to evaluate the generalization effects on naming ability. The minimum and maximum values are 0 and 30, respectively, with higher scores indicating a better outcome.
Changes in the number of main concepts and gestures in discourse production tasks
Discourse samples were collected from participants through various monologues. The discourse elicitation tasks included Main concept analysis, procedural (Ham and Egg Sandwich), narrative (Telling of the story "Tortoise and Hare"), and personal narrative (Sharing of an important event). This will help in assessing their word retrieval abilities at both the sentence and discourse levels, and their verbal and non-verbal communication skills in realistic contexts. Regarding discourse assessment, all samples will be video recorded using a camera. After that, the samples will undergo discourse analysis based on Chinese Linguistics Communication Measures, where conversational speech will be transcribed, and the linguistic index will be calculated and compared. Finally, the number of various types of gestures will also be computed and compared.
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