Administration of Combined Aphasia and Apraxia of Speech Treatment )(CAAST) to 4 persons with aphasia and apraxia of speech in the context of single-subject designs

Therapy is delivered in a face-to-face format. The therapist uses picture stimuli, verbal modeling, feedback, reinforcement, forward-chaining to increase verbal production. For speech errors that occur, the therapist uses modeling, feedback, reinforcement, simultaneous production, articulatory instruction, and repeated practice to improve articulation.

Correct Information Units (CIUs) is a measure of the amount of relevant content produced in connected language tallied according to operationalized criteria. CIU is not a test or scale - it is a measure that is applied to language samples - in this case, description of treated pictures. Participants described experimental pictures, responses were transcribed and CIUs counted. CIUs can range from 0 to an unlimited maximum. Effect sizes (ESs) were calculated as an indication of the magnitude of change in number of CIUs produced (pre treatment to post treatment. ESs can range from negative (poorer performance post-treatment) to positive values (better performance post-treatment), with larger positive values reflecting greater gains. Benchmarks are as follows: >11.14 = large, 11.13 - 6.56 = medium, 6.55 - 3.88 = small, <3.88 = negligible. Small to large ESs indicate production of measurably more CIUs in picture descriptions post-treatment. Larger the ES, the greater the change.

Correct Information Units (CIUs) is a measure of the amount of relevant content produced in connected language tallied according to operationalized criteria. CIU is not a test or scale - it is a measure that is applied to language samples - in this case, description of untreated pictures. Participants described experimental pictures, responses were transcribed and CIUs counted. CIUs can range from 0 to an unlimited maximum. Effect sizes (ESs) were calculated as an indication of the magnitude of change in number of CIUs produced (pre treatment to post treatment. ESs can range from negative (poorer performance post-treatment) to positive values (better performance post-treatment), with larger positive values reflecting greater gains. Benchmarks are as follows: >9.53 = large, 9.52 - 5.52 = medium, 6.55 - 3.29 = small, <3.29 = negligible. Small to large ESs indicate production of measurably more CIUs in picture descriptions post-treatment. Larger the ES, the greater the change.

Speech intelligibility (understandability of speech) was measured by having participants produce 50 words from the Assessment of Intelligibility of Dysarthric Speech (ASSIDS) Two speech-language (blinded) scored pre and post treatment ASSIDS samples. The percentage of words correctly understood was calculated for each participant. The ASSIDS is not a scale - it is a procedure for calculating intelligibility. Speech intelligibility can range from 0% to 100% intelligible (no words understood to all words understood). The higher the percentage, the better the speech is understood by the listener. Change in percent words intelligible has the potential to be a negative (reflecting a poor outcome of less intelligible speech) or positive (reflecting a good outcome of more intelligible speech). The maximum possible amount of gain in intelligibility for these 4 participants, based on their pretreatment performance, ranged from +2% to +25%.

Speakers with chronic aphasia and apraxia of speech who received the experimental treatment

Correct Information Units (CIUs) is a measure of the amount of relevant content produced in connected language tallied according to operationalized criteria. CIU is not a test or scale - it is a measure that is applied to language samples - in this case, description of treated pictures. Participants described experimental pictures, responses were transcribed and CIUs counted. CIUs can range from 0 to an unlimited maximum. Effect sizes (ESs) were calculated as an indication of the magnitude of change in number of CIUs produced (pre treatment to post treatment. ESs can range from negative (poorer performance post-treatment) to positive values (better performance post-treatment), with larger positive values reflecting greater gains. Benchmarks are as follows: >11.14 = large, 11.13 - 6.56 = medium, 6.55 - 3.88 = small, <3.88 = negligible. Small to large ESs indicate production of measurably more CIUs in picture descriptions post-treatment. Larger the ES, the greater the change.

Administration of CAAST to 4 persons with aphasia and apraxia of speech in the context of single-subject designs

Combined Aphasia and Apraxia of Speech Treatment (CAAST): Therapy is delivered in a face-to-face format. The therapist uses picture stimuli, verbal modeling, feedback, reinforcement, forward-chaining to increase verbal production. For speech errors that occur, the therapist uses modeling, feedback, reinforcement, simultaneous production, articulatory instruction, and repeated practice to improve articulation.