Computer-based treatment for svPPA (Robinaugh et al., 2024)
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a self-administered naming treatment for one individual, B.N., presenting with semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (svPPA) and a history of traumatic brain injury (TBI).
Method: Naming treatment included components of Lexical Retrieval Cascade Treatment and was self-administered using an adaptive spaced retrieval software, Anki. Using a multiple-baseline, single-case experimental design, naming accuracy probes were taken during pretreatment, treatment, posttreatment, and follow-up (through 12 months) for 60 trained words and 10 untrained words. Item-level Bayesian generalized mixed-effects models were used to estimate (a) the treatment effect for trained words, (b) change in untrained words, and (c) maintenance of treatment effects from posttreatment to each subsequent follow-up.
Results: Statistical analyses revealed that a gain of 35 out of 60 trained words (35.3; 90% CI [30.6, 39.5]) was directly attributable to treatment. Following treatment, evidence of generalization to untrained words was not observed. During the follow-up period, there was gradual decline in naming accuracy of trained items.
Conclusions: The positive treatment results reported here support the use of self-administered naming treatments for those with svPPA and a history of TBI. Although the utility of this treatment approach is constrained by patient factors including motivation, self-administered naming treatments represent a unique opportunity to expand access to speech-language intervention for people with svPPA, including those with concomitant diagnoses.
Supplemental Material S1. R code and summary of population-level and group-level effects.
Supplemental Material S2. Sensitivity analysis.
Robinaugh, G., Henry, M. L., Cavanaugh, R., & Grasso, S. M. (2024). Computer‐based naming treatment for semantic variant primary progressive aphasia with history of traumatic brain injury: A single‐case experimental design. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 67(2), 524–544. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_JSLHR‐23‐00289
