Multimodal therapy of word retrieval disorder due to phonological encoding dysfunction

Objective: To determine whether phonological multimodal therapy can improve naming and communication in a patient showing a lexical phonological naming disorder. This study employed oral and written learning tasks, using an error reduction procedure. Methods: A single-case design computer-assisted treatment was used with a 52 year-old woman with fluent aphasia consecutive to a cerebral infarction. The cognitive analysis of her word retrieval disorder exhibited a phonological encoding dysfunction. Thus, a phonological procedure was designed addressing the output phonological lexicon using computer analysis of spoken and written words. The effects were tested for trained words, generalization to untrained words, maintenance and specificity. Transfer of improvement to daily life was also assessed. Outcomes and results: After therapy, the verbal naming of both trained and untrained words was improved at p<0.001. The improvement was still maintained after 3 months without therapy. This treatment was specific since the word dictation task did not change. Communication in daily life was improved at p<0.05. Conclusions: This study of a patient with word retrieval disorder due to phonological encoding dysfunction demonstrated the effectiveness of a phonological and multimodal therapeutic treatment.