THERAPY FOR NAMING DISORDERS .1. PRINCIPLES, PUZZLES AND PROGRESS

This paper takes the form of a selective review of studies of therapy for aphasic-naming disorders. There is a bias in the literature toward s studies involving the use of semantic tasks (particularly word-to-pi cture matching) in therapy and therefore this is reflected here. These studies provide clear evidence that aphasic naming disorders can be r emediated but it remains difficult to ascertain the precise mechanism by which this improvement in naming is achieved. Several issues are di scussed which pertain to this problem: the effectiveness of 'semantic' and 'phonological' tasks; the relevance of each component of the ther apy task to the outcome of the therapy; the relationship between the t ype of deficit and the effectiveness of a task; when generalization ca n be expected as opposed to (treated) item-specific improvement; and t he importance of patient success on the task to the success of the the rapy. Finally, the paper concludes with suggestions for the possible d irection of further research into this important area.