A STUDY OF GROUP COMMUNICATION INTERVENTION WITH CHRONICALLY APHASIC PERSONS

Aten et al. (1982) demonstrated that a group of mild moderate chronica lly aphasic individuals made statistically significant improvement on the CADL subsequent to group treatment emphasizing functional communic ation skills. However, no improvement was apparent on the PICA. The pr esent study investigated the effects of a relatively more structured g roup treatment programme on the communication ability of chronically a phasic patients. Ten aphasics, a minimum of 18 months post-onset, part icipated in a 60-week programme that included two series of 20 weeks o f group treatment and 10 weeks of treatment withdrawal. The chronic ap hasic subjects in this study did make gains in overall communication a bility after 20 weeks of structured group treatment, and initial gains were retained throughout treatment withdrawals. Reinitiation of struc tured treatment after a no-treatment interval resulted in a significan t gain in communication ability as measured by the PICA. Significant C ADL gains were limited to the first treatment interval, probably refle cting the broad functional communication context of the group interven tion and the validity of the CADL in assessing factors of functional c ommunication adequacy. The pattern of overall PICA improvement suggest s that group treatment effected continued enhancement of the relativel y discrete modality-specific communication processes measured by that instrument. Thus, while the communication treatment emphasis was broad ly similar in the two studies, the careful structuring of the group co mmunication intervention in the present study apparently enhanced the skills tested by the PICA.