treatment

Agraphia Treatment: Sentence-Level Treatment

What are specific areas to target for writing treatment at the sentence-level? ๐Ÿคท๐Ÿผโ€โ™‚๏ธ๐Ÿ–‹โ“โฃ
โฃ
When treating agaraphia at the sentence-level, syntax and morphology are areas that may be contributing to writing difficulties โœ๐Ÿผ โฃ

Agraphia Treatment: Single Word-Level Treatments

What are your go-to treatment approaches for writing at the single word-level? ๐Ÿ“โฃ
โฃ
Though the specific treatment technique used will depend on your clientโ€™s individual needs, itโ€™s helpful to be familiar with a variety of approaches so that youโ€™ll always be ready to go at a momentโ€™s notice! ๐Ÿ™Œ๐Ÿผ๐Ÿ‘Š๐Ÿผโฃ
โฃ
Here are 3 different approaches that youโ€™ll want to have in your clinical toolbox:โฃ

Agraphia Classifications

Do you know the different agraphia classifications? โœ๐Ÿผโ“๐Ÿ‘€โฃ
โฃ
When diagnosing an agraphia, there are 2 major types of classifications: ๐—–๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—”๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ฝ๐—ต๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐˜€ and ๐—ฃ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฝ๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—”๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ฝ๐—ต๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐˜€โฃ

Agraphia Assessment: Single-Word Assessment

When assessing for agraphia at the single word-level, what are you looking for? ๐Ÿ•ต๏ธโ€โ™‚๏ธ โฃ
โฃ
Written language is complicated, and there are lots of factors that go into understanding the difference between why a client may write COW for โ€œhorseโ€ or spell SIGHKIK for โ€œpsychicโ€ ๐Ÿ„ ๐Ÿ”ฎ โฃ
โฃ
Here are some linguistic variables youโ€™ll want to pay close attention to when assessing agraphia at the single word-level:โฃ

What Books Do Your Clients Want to Read?

๐Ÿ“š What books do your clients want to read? ๐Ÿ“š โฃ
โฃ
Iโ€™ve been working with a client who belongs to an online book club, and the most recent discussion focused on passages from Kate Andersen Browerโ€™s โ€œ๐—™๐—ถ๐—ฟ๐˜€๐˜ ๐—ช๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป: ๐—ง๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—š๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฃ๐—ผ๐˜„๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐—”๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฎโ€™๐˜€ ๐—™๐—ถ๐—ฟ๐˜€๐˜ ๐—Ÿ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐˜€โ€ ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธโฃ
โฃ
Weโ€™ve been using ๐—”๐˜๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—–๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—ฆ๐˜‚๐—บ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐˜‡๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป (๐—”๐—ฅ๐—–๐—ฆ) and the ๐—ฃ๐—ค๐—ฅ๐—ฆ๐—ง ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐˜๐—ต๐—ผ๐—ฑ to dive into the passages for the book club, allowing my client to better understand what she is reading and come up with discussion points for the group ๐Ÿ—ฃโฃ

Alexia and Aphasia Textbooks

๐Ÿ“š Textbook Time! ๐Ÿ“š โฃ
โฃ
A good textbook is invaluable when trying to dive into the specifics of a certain disorder or condition. When I find a text that is well-written and full of resources, I find that I come back to it time and time again.โฃ
โฃ
For alexia, here are the texts that I have found to be helpful as clinical resources:โฃ

Alexia Treatment: Life Participation Approach

In order for therapy to make the biggest impact, therapy tasks need to be centered around meaningful activities ๐Ÿ—ฃโฃ
โฃ
The ๐—Ÿ๐—ถ๐—ณ๐—ฒ ๐—ฃ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ถ๐—ฝ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—”๐—ฝ๐—ฝ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ต ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—”๐—ฝ๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ฎ utilizes a model known as the ๐—”-๐—™๐—ฅ๐—ข๐—  (Living with Aphasia: Framework for Outcome Measurement). The A-FROM has 4 distinct domains that all contribute to living with aphasia.

Alexia Treatment: Discourse/Paragraph-Level Treatments

Treatment for alexia at the paragraph/discourse-level tends to emphasize metacognitive strategy use and environmental supports. โฃ Approaches you may consider using include:โฃ ๐—”๐˜๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—–๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—ฆ๐˜‚๐—บ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐˜‡๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป (๐—”๐—–๐—ฅ๐—ฆ), PQRST, and Supported Reading Comprehension Strategies.

Alexia Assessment: Paragraph/Discourse-Level Assessments

When assessing reading skills at the paragraph/discourse-level, emphasis is typically placed on comprehension of stated and implied main ideas โฃ
โฃ
By utilizing a paragraph/discourse-level assessment, youโ€™ll get better insight into your clientโ€™s inferencing skills, the effect of text length on comprehension, and better insight into how reading difficulties may impact functional reading tasks in everyday life (such as reading a menu or reading an online news article) โฃ
โฃ

Oral Reading for Language in Aphasia

Looking for a general sentence/discourse-level treatment for alexia? Consider checking out ๐—ข๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—Ÿ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ด๐˜‚๐—ฎ๐—ด๐—ฒ ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—”๐—ฝ๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ฎ (ORLA)!โฃ
โฃ
ORLA is based on a stimulation approach, where repetitive practice through multiple modalities leads to over-learning of skills (and therefore better maintenance of therapy gains)โฃ

Taking Semantic Feature Analysis to the Next Level

Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA) is a well-known treatment technique in the SLP world. SFA aims to improve word-finding via spreading activation within the semantic system, and has been shown to result in significant improvements in confrontation naming (Quique, Evans, and Dickey, 2019).โฃ
โฃ
While SFA is a powerful tool by itself, researchers have continued to modify and enhance the protocol in order to optimize outcomes. Here are a some ways you can enhance SFA treatment:โฃ
โฃ

Alexia Treatment--Combined Lexical and Sublexical Approach

For many people with alexia, there is no one single cause for their reading difficulties. Rather, there are a variety of language processing components that are compromised and result in difficulty reading single words.โฃ ๐—–๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฏ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—Ÿ๐—ฒ๐˜…๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฆ๐˜‚๐—ฏ๐—น๐—ฒ๐˜…๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—ง๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜ (Johnson, Ross, & Kiran, 2017) is designed to target ๐˜ผ๐™‡๐™‡ aspects of written word processing. โฃ