Semantic Feature Analysis Treatment for Anomia in Two Fluent Aphasia Syndromes

boylem{at}mail.montclair.edu

The effect of semantic feature analysis (SFA) treatment on confrontation naming and discourse production was examined in 2 persons, 1 with anomic aphasia and 1 with Wernicke's aphasia. Results indicated that confrontation naming of treated nouns improved and generalized to untreated nouns for both participants, who appeared to have different lexical access impairments. Both participants demonstrated improvement in some aspects of discourse production associated with the confrontation naming SFA treatment. However, there was no change in most manifestations of lexical retrieval difficulty during discourse for either participant. These findings support previous work regarding improved and generalized naming associated with SFA treatment and indicate a need to examine effects of improved confrontation naming on more natural speaking situations.

Key Words: aphasia, treatment, anomia, semantic feature analysis, word retrieval

Submitted on August 22, 2003
Accepted on April 28, 2004