CAAST language changes (Bunker et al., 2018)

Purpose: Combined Aphasia and Apraxia of Speech Treatment (CAAST) is a newly developed treatment shown to increase production of accurate content in narrative discourse for persons with aphasia and apraxia of speech. The purpose of this post hoc study was to further describe lexical and morphosyntactic changes associated with changes in content production. Method: Existing probe data from 8 persons with aphasia who had completed CAAST were used to complete analyses of morphosyntactic production, lexical diversity, and novelty of content. Language analyses were completed using discourse samples obtained at numerous pretreatment and posttreatment intervals.Results: All participants demonstrated gains in morphosyntactic language output for treated items, which extended to untreated sets for 7 participants. All 8 increased in production of novel content. Lexical diversity increases were evident for most participants. Although there were some similarities in language changes, there was substantial variability across response profiles.Conclusion: CAAST, previously associated with positive treatment effects for production of accurate content, also appears to facilitate acquisition and generalization of morphosyntactic complexity, lexical diversity, and novelty of content for individuals with nonfluent aphasia. Further investigation is needed to determine causality and appropriate clinical application.Supplemental Material S1. Examples of responses to picture stimuli during probing.Supplemental Material S2. Quantitative production analysis (QPA) measures by participant.Supplemental Material S3. Distribution of novel content.Bunker, L. D., Wright, S., & Wambaugh, J. L. (2018). Language changes following combined aphasia and apraxia of speech treatment. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 27(1S), 323–335.

目的：综合失语症和构音障碍治疗（CAAST）是一种新开发的疗法，已被证明能够提高失语症和构音障碍患者叙事话语中准确内容的产出。本事后研究的目的在于进一步描述与内容产出变化相关的词汇和形态句法变化。方法：利用8名完成CAAST治疗的失语症患者的现有探针数据，完成形态句法产出、词汇多样性和内容新颖性的分析。语言分析使用在多个治疗前和治疗后间隔获得的语篇样本完成。结果：所有参与者治疗项目的形态句法语言产出均有所提高，其中7名参与者的产出扩展到了未治疗项目。所有8名参与者内容的新颖性产出均有所增加。大多数参与者的词汇多样性也有所提高。尽管语言变化存在一些相似性，但响应轮廓之间存在着显著的差异性。结论：CAAST，此前与准确内容产出的积极治疗效果相关，似乎也有助于非流畅性失语症患者获取和泛化形态句法复杂性、词汇多样性和内容新颖性。需要进一步研究以确定因果关系和适宜的临床应用。补充材料S1：探针期间对图片刺激的反应示例。补充材料S2：按参与者进行的定量产出分析（QPA）措施。补充材料S3：新颖内容的分布。Bunker, L. D., Wright, S., & Wambaugh, J. L. (2018). 治疗综合失语症和构音障碍后的语言变化。美国言语-语言病理学杂志，27(1S)，323–335。