TY - JOUR
T1 - Two to tango or the more the merrier? A randomized controlled trial of the effects of group size in aphasia conversation treatment on standardized tests
AU - DeDe, Gayle
AU - Hoover, Elizabeth
AU - Maas, Edwin
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was funded by Grant R21DC015859 (awarded to Elizabeth Hoover and Gayle DeDe) from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. Preliminary findings were reported at the 2018 Clinical Aphasiology Conference (Austin, TX, June 2018) and the International Aphasia Rehabilitation Conference (Aveiro, Portugal, September 2018) and are published in abstract form (Hoover, DeDe, & Maas, 2018). The authors would like to thank David Caplan, Audrey Holland, and Ting Dai for their help at the initial stages of this project. They also thank the students who assisted in the study, including Alexandra McFee, Rachael Campbell, Andrea Chang, Leela Rao, Rebecca Goldenberg, Chrissy Sandilos, Jaclyn Navarro, and Mary Mash, and also William Hula for sharing the ACOM materials. Finally, they thank the participants and their families, without whom this would not have been possible. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
PY - 2019/5
Y1 - 2019/5
N2 - Purpose: Group conversation treatment has the potential to improve communication and reduce social isolation for people with aphasia. This project examined how 2 conflicting hypotheses-treatment dosage and group dynamics-affect treatment outcomes. Method: Forty-eight participants with chronic aphasia were randomly assigned to either a dyad, a large group, or a delayed control group. Conversation group treatment was provided for an hour, twice per week, for 10 weeks. Individual goals were developed by each participant and addressed in the context of thematically oriented conversation treatment. Standardized testing across language domains was completed pretreatment (Time 1), posttreatment (Time 2), at a 6-week maintenance point (Time 3), and at 11-month follow-up for the experimental groups. Results: Treatment groups showed greater changes on standardized measures than the control group posttreatment. Dyads showed the most changes on measures of language impairment, whereas changes on the self-reported functional communication measure (Aphasia Communication Outcome Measure) and connected speech task only showed significant changes in the large group. Conclusions: This randomized controlled trial on conversation treatment indicated that both treatment groups-but not the delayed control group-showed significant changes on standardized tests. Hence, conversation treatment is associated with changes in measures of language impairment and quality of life. Dyads showed the most changes on measures of language impairment, whereas changes on the functional communication measure (Aphasia Communication Outcome Measure) and discourse production only showed significant changes in the large group. Thus, group size may be associated with effects on different types of outcome measures.
AB - Purpose: Group conversation treatment has the potential to improve communication and reduce social isolation for people with aphasia. This project examined how 2 conflicting hypotheses-treatment dosage and group dynamics-affect treatment outcomes. Method: Forty-eight participants with chronic aphasia were randomly assigned to either a dyad, a large group, or a delayed control group. Conversation group treatment was provided for an hour, twice per week, for 10 weeks. Individual goals were developed by each participant and addressed in the context of thematically oriented conversation treatment. Standardized testing across language domains was completed pretreatment (Time 1), posttreatment (Time 2), at a 6-week maintenance point (Time 3), and at 11-month follow-up for the experimental groups. Results: Treatment groups showed greater changes on standardized measures than the control group posttreatment. Dyads showed the most changes on measures of language impairment, whereas changes on the self-reported functional communication measure (Aphasia Communication Outcome Measure) and connected speech task only showed significant changes in the large group. Conclusions: This randomized controlled trial on conversation treatment indicated that both treatment groups-but not the delayed control group-showed significant changes on standardized tests. Hence, conversation treatment is associated with changes in measures of language impairment and quality of life. Dyads showed the most changes on measures of language impairment, whereas changes on the functional communication measure (Aphasia Communication Outcome Measure) and discourse production only showed significant changes in the large group. Thus, group size may be associated with effects on different types of outcome measures.
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U2 - 10.1044/2019_JSLHR-L-18-0404
DO - 10.1044/2019_JSLHR-L-18-0404
M3 - Article
C2 - 31084573
AN - SCOPUS:85066820556
SN - 1092-4388
VL - 62
SP - 1437
EP - 1451
JO - Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
JF - Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
IS - 5
ER -