Deficit-oriented treatment of word-finding problems: Another replication

Word-finding problems may have different underlying causes. The patient in the present study suffers from diminished access to the phonological word-forms, whereas access to the graphemic word-forms is relatively spared. Apart from this, she cannot convert graphemes into phonemes, resulting in a complete inability to read non-words. A similar symptom complex has been described and successfully treated by Bachy-Langedock and De Partz (1983) and Nickels (1992). We replicated their therapy methods and evaluated the effects. Improvement was found in treatment-related, but not in unrelated tests. This improvement generalized to spontaneous speech. However, not all stages of treatment were successful: after therapy the patient was still unable to read non-words. It will be argued that treatment aiming at compensation of disturbed language functions was effective, whereas treatment aiming at restoration was not.