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Investigating the Efficiency of Group Therapy on Improving Conversational Skills in People with Aphasia

Yael Neumann-Werth1*
  • 1 Queens College (CUNY), United States

Group therapy provides a naturalistic setting to enhance functional communication skills, e.g., conversational abilities, in people with aphasia (PWA). The Life Participation Approach to Aphasia (LPAA) supports the view of treating PWA as members of a social unit with his/her conversational partner(s). Therefore, group aphasia therapy is a highly beneficial approach to achieving this goal as it provides a natural forum for supporting conversational practice. There are numerous studies that have looked at various contributors to group therapy outcomes, namely, transactional and interactional assessment, in addition to linguistic, functional/social, quality of life, psychological, and cognitive/executive functioning measures. However, these variables have not been studied collectively in one in-depth study. This project intends to enhance our understanding of the effectiveness of group therapy on conversation skills using a multitude of measurement outcomes. Findings from this pilot study will then be used to develop a comprehensive standardized tool for eventual professional use in various rehabilitation settings.     The participant in this study was a non-fluent aphasic due to a unilateral cerebrovascular accident. He was 2-year post-onset, had no symptoms of dementia, adequate hearing and vision, used English as his primary language, and had adequate communicative abilities to engage in conversation. The subject participated in a group therapy which consisted of three other members with a variety of different types of aphasia. The subject was tested on an array of standardized tests and functional rating scales to study conversational changes pre-and post-group therapy. This included assessment of: transactional analysis, conversational analysis, interactional aspects in conversations (Measure of Interaction in Communication - MIC), language abilities using the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination (BDAE-Short Form), comprehension through the use of the Token Test (Short Version), linguistic and executive functions by using Word Fluency, functional communication skills using the Communication Activities in Daily-Living (CADL-2), quality of life (Stroke and Aphasia Quality of Life Scale -SAQOL-39), psychological well-being (Geriatric Depression Scale - GDS), and executive function skills like planning, impulse inhibition, and the ability to shift cognitive focus (Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System). The group therapy was run once a week for 45 minutes over the course of 12 weeks. The sessions focused on discussing current event topics and group games with the overall goal of creating a social, supportive, and therapeutic community. Therapeutic principles were largely taken from Promoting Aphasic’s Communicative Effectiveness (PACE; Davis, 2005) where the conversational partner and the study participant took equal turns in the exchange of information, shared novel information, and were encouraged to use multi-modalities in communication, e.g. using gestures, pointing, an ABC board, writing. Pre-testing results indicate the participant’s performance was generally mild. Transactional success measured the participant’s ability to yield information regarding three short clips played from the Mr. Bean television show. We identified the main ideas for each clip and determined target words for the structure of the main ideas. On average, the subject was able to identify at least one target component from each main idea, however his overall performance level was low. When assessing interactional success, we observed the participant interact with a conversational partner. In this testing, the participant received a higher score for his interactional skills than his transactional skills. He did not demonstrate a verbal/vocal attempt to engage his communication partner or respond to interactional attempts; however, he scored much higher in his nonverbal communication (i.e. gesture, writing, drawing, etc.) attempt where he showed full and appropriate participation. While observing his transactional skills with a communicative partner, he scored the same on verbal/vocal and nonverbal communication; he exhibited adequate participation. With regards to his language abilities, he scored high in auditory comprehension with the Token test – SF. Other tests where the subject received a low score on were in the quality of life and geriatric depression scale. Initial analyses of post-therapy findings are currently being analyzed and will be completed prior to the conference date.

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Keywords: Aphasia, Group Therapy, Conversational skills, adults population, aphasia therapy

Conference: Academy of Aphasia 55th Annual Meeting , Baltimore, United States, 5 Nov - 7 Nov, 2017.

Presentation Type: poster presentation

Topic: General Submission

Citation: Neumann-Werth Y (2019). Investigating the Efficiency of Group Therapy on Improving Conversational Skills in People with Aphasia. Conference Abstract: Academy of Aphasia 55th Annual Meeting . doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2017.223.00043

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Received: 03 May 2017; Published Online: 25 Jan 2019.

* Correspondence: Dr. Yael Neumann-Werth, Queens College (CUNY), Queens, United States, rodriguez.janice88@gmail.com