An Intensive, Interdisciplinary Treatment Program for Persons with Aphasia

Traditionally, much of individual aphasia therapy has been focused on attempts to remediate underlying linguistic deficits. While many treatments have been shown to improve discrete language functions (Robey et al, 1998), those newly learned skills do not always transfer readily to non-trained environments. Over the past two decades, a growing number of aphasiologists have begun to focus their attention on social approaches to aphasia assessment and treatment (Elman, 2007). One such approach, group treatment, serves as a natural and dynamic vehicle to improve social communication, which has been shown to improve discrete language skills in persons with aphasia (pwa), (Elman & Bernstein-Ellis, 1999). Group treatment frequently co-occurs with individual therapy, but is rarely used as a formal mechanism to train generalization. Another area of broad discussion in aphasia rehabilitation is the concept of treatment intensity. Basso (2005) reported that pwa who received a higher number of therapy sessions improved more than those who received a lower number of therapy sessions. Bhogal et al (2003) found that treatment provided on a more intense level (>8.8 hours/week) for a shorter period of time resulted in stronger improvements compared to treatment provided on a less intense level over a longer period of time. A final issue is that individuals with stroke-induced aphasia often present with concomitant motor, cognitive and dietary/cardiac issues. Thus it seems that an interdisciplinary approach incorporating physical, occupational and nutritional therapy would also be beneficial. This paper explores the speech-language effects of a treatment program, which attempts to incorporate evidenced-based treatment, in an intensive, interdisciplinary format. Pilot data from an initial cohort completed June 2011 as well as multiple-baseline data from a second cohort completed June 2012 is presented