THERAPY FOR NAMING DISORDERS .2. SPECIFICS, SURPRISES AND SUGGESTIONS

This paper presents a series of therapy studies aimed at remediation o f the word-retrieval deficits of three aphasic patients. All three pat ients are argued to have semantic deficits and are given semantic ther apy in the form of word-to-picture matching tasks. Two of the patients (A.E.R. and T.R.C.) show improved naming as a result of the therapy, with generalization to untreated items. The third patient (P.A.) does not improve as a result of the word-to-picture matching therapy, even though her pattern of deficits appears similar. However, she does show item-specific improvement in naming with a different therapy (lexical therapy), The reasons for the differences between the patients in the ir response to therapy are discussed. In particular we consider the ef fect of the production of the word during the therapy, and the patient 's ability to perform the task accurately. Additionally, we investigat e the role of modality of input and generalization across modality of output, and the use of different types of semantic therapy. The study highlights the importance of analysing tasks in detail, and the need t o continuously evaluate the effects of intervention.