Group intervention for acquired writing disorders in aphasia

ABSTRACT

Background

One-to-one rehabilitation therapy is effective in supporting people with moderate and severe aphasia to improve their written spelling with the aim of using writing to augment limited spoken language abilities. To date, there has been little exploration of therapy for dysgraphia in a group format.

Aims

The present study was designed to evaluate treatment outcomes for impairment-based group therapy for dysgraphia supplemented with home practice exercises.

Methods & Procedures

Three individuals with very severe, severe and moderate aphasia engaged in eight group sessions of impairment-based spelling therapy incorporating game formats. Outcome measures included written naming of trained and untrained words and carer ratings for communicative effectiveness and functional use of writing.

Outcomes and Results

All participants made gains in their written accuracy. Carer ratings also indicated an increased use of writing and/or communicative effectiveness following intervention.

Conclusions

A group format, embedding written naming in a social context can be a successful means of delivering impairment-based therapy for dysgraphia.

KEYWORDS:

• dysgraphia
• writing
• spelling
• aphasia
• group treatment
• stroke

Acknowledgements

The group intervention was made possible by the efforts of two student clinicians, now qualified SLTs, Max Elswood and Rhiannon Sewell. Thanks also goes to Dr Lynsey Parrott for acting as the ‘blind’ assessor in the post-treatment evaluations. We would also like to thank AV, DH, SG, PP and their family members for their enthusiastic engagement with this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.