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Within and between language treatment effects in severe aphasia in multilingual speakers

Monica I. Norvik1, Mira Goral2*, Ekaterina Kuzmina1, Ingvild Røste1 and Hanne G. Simonsen1
  • 1 University of Oslo, Norway
  • 2 The Graduate Center, City University of New York, United States

Introduction and Aim. Verbs have a pivotal communicative role in language production (de Diego Balaguer et al., 2006). Difficulties in verb retrieval may lead to problems with daily communication and therefore treatment for aphasia that targets verb retrieval could facilitate communication. In this study we aimed to improve verb and sentence production in two multilingual speakers with severe aphasia. We asked whether treatment could improve production in the treated language and whether it could generalize to the untreated language. Methods. Participants: Two individuals with severe chronic non-fluent aphasia participated in the study. P1, a trilingual (Tamil-English-Norwegian) right-handed male was 12 years-post-onset at the time of the study. P2, also trilingual (Farsi-English-Norwegian), right-handed was 1 year-post-onset at the time of the study. Both participants had auditory comprehension deficits in addition to impairments in spoken production. P1 used both spoken and written language to communicate. Materials and procedures: Assessment materials. Four lists of 25 of everyday verbs (NATR; Morris et al., 2009) (matched for word frequency, all with high naming agreement) were employed, in addition to selected subtests from the Bilingual Aphasia Test (BAT, Paradis & Libben, 1987), confrontation naming tests for verbs (VAST; Bastiaanse et al., 2006) and nouns (PALPA; Kay et al., 2009), semantic association tests for verbs (Kissing and Dancing; Bak et al., 2003) and nouns (Pyramids and Palm Trees; Howard & Patterson, 1992), and the Flanker Test (Eriksen & Eriksen, 1974). Procedures. The participants received 36 hours of treatment in Norwegian in an intensive manner (6 hours per week over 6 weeks). Treatment comprised Verb Network Strengthening Treatment (VNeST; Edmonds et al., 2009) and Intensive Language Action Treatment (ILAT; Difransesco et al., 2012). Each session was conducted with one clinician and the two participants, who took turns producing appropriate actors and objects during VNeST and producing simple sentences to describe action picture-cards during ILAT. Testing was completed in each of the participants’ languages on different days by native or highly proficient speakers of each language, prior to and following treatment. In this poster we report on data from English and Norwegian. Results. Comparing the participants’ performance before and after treatment revealed that P1 improved his production in Norwegian, the treated language, as well as in English, which was not treated. This was true for the BAT overall, as well as for verb and noun retrieval (Table 1). His semantic processing was good before treatment and remained stable post-treatment. In contrast, P2 did not benefit from treatment as he showed no change in his performance in Norwegian, the treated language, or in the untreated English. Discussion. Treatment that targeted verb and sentence production improved language production of one of the two participants in this study. Both participants were multilingual, had severe aphasia, and performed well on the non-verbal cognitive test (Flanker). The participant who did not benefit from treatment had apraxia of speech in addition to his severe aphasia. We conclude that targeting verb and sentence production could lead to both within- and between-language improvement even in severe aphasia.

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References

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Keywords: Severe aphasia, multilingual speakers, Treatment, cross-language, verbs

Conference: Academy of Aphasia 57th Annual Meeting, Macau, Macao, SAR China, 27 Oct - 29 Oct, 2019.

Presentation Type: Poster presentation

Topic: Not eligible for student award

Citation: Norvik MI, Goral M, Kuzmina E, Røste I and Simonsen HG (2019). Within and between language treatment effects in severe aphasia in multilingual speakers. Front. Hum. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: Academy of Aphasia 57th Annual Meeting. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2019.01.00089

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Received: 05 May 2019; Published Online: 09 Oct 2019.

* Correspondence: Prof. Mira Goral, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York City, New York, 10016, United States, mira.goral@lehman.cuny.edu