Effects of treatment for sound errors in apraxia of speech and aphasia.

This investigation was designed to examine the acquisition, generalization, and maintenance effects of a treatment for sound errors in speakers with co-occurring apraxia of speech and aphasia. Three speakers with chronic apraxia of speech and aphasia were studied in the context of a multiple baseline design across speakers and behaviors. Treatment combined the use of minimal contrast pairs with traditional sound production training techniques such as integral stimulation and articulatory placement cueing and was applied sequentially to sounds that were determined to be consistently in error before training. Results revealed increased correct sound productions for all speakers in trained and untrained words. Response generalization effects across sounds and stimulus generalization effects varied, but appeared to be limited for most speakers. Although positive maintenance effects were evidenced, some loss of treatment gains was noted following cessation of treatment.

Training and generalization of agrammatic aphasic adults' wh-interrogative productions.

The stimulus and response generalization effects of training wh-interrogative production were examined in 4 agrammatic Broca's aphasic subjects using a multiple baseline design across behaviors and subjects. Throughout treatment, response generalization to untrained questions and stimulus generalization to several nontraining conditions were assessed. Variable response generalization to untrained exemplars of trained wh-interrogative forms and little generalization to grammatically different wh constructions occurred. Stimulus generalization to only one of three conditions was noted. However, generalization treatment involving sequential modification of training across conditions was found to be effective in facilitating generalization to an additional stimulus condition for 2 of the 4 subjects.