Date of Award

5-2015

Degree Type

Creative Project

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education

Committee Chair(s)

Lisa Milman

Committee

Lisa Milman

Committee

Deborah Amundson

Committee

Jared Schultz

Abstract

Purpose: A large body of research addresses the best methods and practices to treat individuals with aphasia. Much of this research focuses on individuals who have aphasia secondary to stroke. While the most common cause of aphasia is stroke, aphasia can also result from other brain diseases or injury. Relatively little research has focused on oncological aphasia resulting from brain cancer. This research examined aphasia treatment efficacy in an individual with aphasia following removal of a brain tumor. Methods: Standardized testing was used to evaluate the clinical profile of an individual with oncological aphasia. An integrated language treatment approach was implemented with one participant with fluent aphasia using a multiple baseline across behaviors design. CIUs/utterances and percentage of CIUs produced were compared across baseline, treatment and post-treatment phases with four different conversational partners. Treatment effect size was calculated with each conversational partner. Standardized assessments were also administered before and after treatment. Results: Small treatment effect sizes were found with three of the four conversational partners. The participant showed generalization of skills acquired on standardized motor speech, spoken language, memory, and functional communication measures. Discussion: Findings add to evidence in support of integrated treatment approaches and add to the knowledge of the baseline performance of individuals with aphasia due to brain tumor removal. Findings suggest that effects of integrated treatment extend to functional communication.

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