Balancing Effortful and Errorless Learning in Naming Treatment for Aphasia

Launched by UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH · Dec 7, 2022

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

This clinical trial is studying new ways to help people with aphasia, a language disorder often caused by stroke, improve their ability to find and use words in everyday situations. Many people with aphasia struggle with a specific type of word-finding difficulty called anomia, which can make communication frustrating. The researchers are exploring treatment approaches that not only help participants remember words better over the long term but also encourage them to use these words in their daily lives.

To be eligible for this study, participants must be at least 65 years old and have had aphasia for more than six months following a stroke that affected the left side of the brain. They should also have some difficulty with language, as shown in a specific test. However, those with certain other neurological issues, serious language understanding problems, or significant mental health challenges won't be able to participate. If you join, you can expect to engage in activities designed to improve your naming abilities, with support from the research team throughout the process.

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• Inclusion Criteria:
• • Existing diagnosis of chronic (\>6 months) aphasia subsequent to left hemisphere stroke.
• • Impaired performance on 2/8 sections of the Comprehensive Aphasia Test.
• Exclusion Criteria:
• • History of other acquired or progressive neurological disease.
• • Significant language comprehension impairments (per performance on the CAT - individuals will be excluded if their spoken language comprehension mean modality T- score on the CAT falls below 40).
• • Unmanaged drug / alcohol dependence.
• • Severe diagnosed mood or behavioral disorders that require specialize mental health interventions.