Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

School of Medicine

Department

Communication Sciences and Disorders

Committee Chair

Kimberly Meigh

Committee Co-Chair

Tori Gilbert

Committee Member

Tori Gilbert

Committee Member

Alex Hollo

Abstract

There are some gaps in the literature regarding the efficacy of script therapy in patients with chronic aphasia, particularly chronic aphasia that lasts for several years post-onset, in terms of treatments to improve functional communication during daily activities. This study investigates the relationship between script therapy and communication effectiveness and communicative efficiency. In this context, communication effectiveness was measured by the percent script correct, and communicative efficiency was measured by the total duration to produce the script and the mean duration of pauses at the beginning of sentences.

The efficacy of intensive script training on discourse effectiveness and efficiency was investigated with a patient who had old-chronic nonfluent aphasia (13 years post-onset) using a single subject, multiple baseline design across three different scripts. The participant attended a two-week intensive script therapy and engaged in 15-minute homework activities twice a week.

Our results indicated that the percentage of script-related words used was sensitive to script training intervention, and at the end of this study, the participant demonstrated proficiency with all of the scripts. This allowed him to communicate the sufficient amount of information conveyed in the scripts. Furthermore, script therapy was a part of a global decrease in the duration-related variables, when taking the speed-accuracy trade-off and individual characteristics into account. At the end of this study, the participant demonstrated increased communicative efficiency.

We conclude that intensive script therapy increased communication effectiveness and communicative efficiency for our participant. At the end of the study, he reported using the scripts on a regular basis and expressed an interest in using script therapy in his future speech and language therapies. More research on this relationship, as well as improved experimental control to indicate a certain relation between script therapy and increased functional communication during daily activities, is needed.

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