Successful word retraining, maintenance and transference of practice to everyday activities: A single case experimental design in early onset alcohol-induced brain damage

ABSTRACT

Word retraining programs have been shown to improve naming ability post-stroke and in progressive aphasias. Here, we investigated benefits for a 22-year-old Danish man (DJ), whose difficulties followed brain damage from heavy alcohol misuse. Using a multiple baseline-across-behaviours design (target behaviour: retrieval of word list items), DJ completed a 4-week “Look, Listen, Repeat” program on a computer. Ninety personally relevant target words were selected to create three matched lists. List 1 was trained for 10 sessions over 2 weeks, followed by 9 sessions for List 2 over 2 weeks, while the third list remained untrained. Naming performance was evaluated at baseline, during the intervention, and at 1 and 4 months post-training. Naming improved following each intervention block (p < .001), with only one data point overlapping between the baseline and treatment phases for trained items. Untrained words remained unchanged (p = 1.00), with 50% of data points non-overlapping across baseline to treatment phases. Performance was maintained over time, and appeared to generalize, with DJ naming more trained objects in their natural setting (85%) than untrained items (64%). While more evidence is needed, brief (20-minute), intensive (5-day/week) word retraining programs may assist word retrieval for people with brain damage associated with alcohol misuse.

KEYWORDS:

• Naming therapy
• Word retrieval
• Generalization of learning
• Alcohol-related brain injury
• Cognitive rehabilitation

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank “DJ” for his commitment, time and effort in taking part in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

ASG was supported by a UKRI Healthy Ageing Challenge Catalyst Award [ES/W006405/1].