I noticed an interesting article that came recently from ASHA. A special issue of AJSLP (The American Journal of
Speech-Language Pathology) published selected papers from the 45th Clinical Aphasiology Conference (CAC). It is important to remember that the paper I am citing was based on adult rehabilitation in aphasia, NOT on children with delayed or disordered language development. However, it piqued my interest. More research would be needed to know how these same research conditions would impact children with word finding difficulties.
Researcher Naomi Hashimoto investigated “The Use of One or Three Associative Primes in Treating Anomia in Aphasia.” Click here to read the article (ASHA members may access it with their ASHA login): http://ajslp.pubs.asha.org/article.aspx?articleid=2594837
“Associative primes,”or semantic associations were provided to adults with aphasia to promote picture naming. I typically promote phonological associations, not semantic associations. We are establishing synapses in the developing brain, however, so I feel the more neurological connections the better!
Ms. Hashimoto documented improvement in 8 of 10 study participants. Researchers provided either one or three “semantic primes,” or lexical connections, to aid naming in post-trauma aphasia patients. The participants did not generate their own associations, nor were they coached on the strategy being used. Both of these conditions might have impacted the results. Interestingly, there was not a significant advantage to using 3 primes instead of one.
Another question raised was the “treatment dosage.” Was there a correlation between the number of teaching episodes and the improvement in naming abilities? The results were not clearcut. To quote the study, “it is more likely the case that the number of episodes that must be provided will depend on a variety of factors, including a given participant’s linguistic (and likely) cognitive abilities and the intervention technique being used.”
The study raised several interesting questions that will hopefully be answered by additional research. But it is important to note that, at least in aphasia, the results supported the use of semantic associative primes to increase naming accuracy.