USING INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP-THERAPY TO REMEDIATE WORD-FINDING DIFFICULTIES

Several studies have shown that the word finding problems of people wi th dysphasia may be treated by the use of lexical semantic therapy. Cl inicians may be concerned, however, that comparatively large amounts o f therapy time are required to make relatively small gains. An experim ent is reported in which four subjects were first treated individually on different but complimentary sets of words. This was followed by gr oup therapy in which they were asked to use the words in conversationa l settings. Gains were made on the treated words after individual ther apy and on words used in conversation after group therapy and were mai ntained at a follow up assessment. The method offers a way of treating word finding problems which is both more naturalistic and more econom ical of therapy resources.