Impact of Group Participation on Adults With Aphasia

University of Arkansas

Status: Active, not recruiting

Conditions: Rehabilitation; Stroke; Aphasia, Acquired; Language Disorder, Acquired

Treatments: Behavioral: Language intervention with group sessions and independent tasks with emphasis on improving reading and writing skills among persons with aphasia

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05520528

274500

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of the study is to examine the impact of group participation on adults with aphasia. Participants will complete a standard pre-and post-assessment of language abilities (speech, comprehension, reading, and/or writing). Then participants will attend 90-minute weekly reading group sessions during an academic semester.

Full description

The objective of this research is to determine if attendance in groups positively impacts language skills, activity/participation, and/or quality of life in persons with aphasia.

This study will employ a university-clinic based outpatient group to administer language intervention. The specific aims of this study are to determine if group participation improves (1) life participation as measured by self-report questionnaires, (2) intervention-specific language skills as measured by treatment-related measures (e.g., reading comprehension and written expression), and (3) performance on non-treated language test scores as measured by a language assessment battery.

Participants will complete 4-5 individual testing sessions (e.g., initial assessment and pre-/post-testing), 7-12 group sessions (90-minute weekly reading group session), and 7-12 independent sessions at home (e.g., completion of weekly reading assignments).

The participants will read through a designated book incrementally across multiple weeks. The activities completed during the group sessions will focus on improving reading comprehension and written expression skills. Participants will read assigned passages at home and during the group sessions. Participants will complete a Copy and Recall Treatment (CART) worksheet independently to facilitate improvements in writing keywords related to the reading materials. CART involves copying target words and progresses to writing words from recall (Beeson, et al.). Participants will complete a reading comprehension worksheet and engage in discussion regarding the assigned book chapter.

Reading comprehension and written expression data will be collected and analyzed to compare the pre-treatment baseline performance from the first treatment session to the post-treatment performance from the last treatment session. Pre-and post-testing scores will be analyzed to investigate the change in scores across the 2-time points to determine the relative effectiveness of book club participation for improving reading comprehension, written expression, and life participation.

Enrollment: 40 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Age 18 years or older
• Pre-morbid proficient speaker of English
• Diagnosis of adult-onset aphasia
• Vision and hearing sufficient to complete assessments

Exclusion criteria

• No history of childhood speech or language difficulties
• No history of major psychiatric illness, cognitive impairment, or neurological disorders such as seizures

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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40 participants in 1 patient group

Reading Group

Experimental group

Description:

All participants in this group will receive language intervention within weekly group sessions and independent tasks with emphasis on improving reading and writing skills among persons with aphasia.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Language intervention with group sessions and independent tasks with emphasis on improving reading and writing skills among persons with aphasia