Computer‐generated phonemic cues: an effective aid for naming in aphasia

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Abstract
This study investigates whether computer‐generated phonemic cues can be used in improving naming in Broca's aphasics, either in treatment or as a prosthesis. Five patients who were able to indicate the initial letters of words which they could not produce, and who responded to phonemic cues given by a therapist, were taught to use a microcomputer as an aid to generate phonemic cues over five sessions. All the patients benefited; four of the subjects were significantly better in naming with the aid, and improvement generalised to names which had not been involved in treatment. Four of the subjects were better at indicating the first letters of names of items in the treatment set than untreated control pictures; it appears that treatment teaches patients about the initial letters in the words. We conclude that microcomputer‐generated phonemic cues are a promising approach to treatment of word retrieval difficulties in aphasia.