Many people with acquired brain injuries have deficits in reading decoding, reading comprehension, and written expression. Alexia is a phenomenon in which a person who previously could read has trouble doing so after having sustained a brain injury; likewise, agraphia is an acquired writing problem affecting one or more aspects of written communication. Alexia and agraphia sometimes co-occur with one another and/or with other language challenges, but they can also occur as isolated phenomena. Methods to treat alexia and agraphia often focus on single intervention techniques that address aspects of reading or writing in isolation-such as matching written and spoken letters or letter sounds, performing choral reading, tracing letters, etc. Existing research suggests that the effectiveness of these techniques is limited. However, when used in combination, such techniques may promote improved reading and written communication skills. As such, the purpose of this research is to determine the extent to which a multicomponent intervention program improves the reading and writing capabilities of people with acquired alexia and/or agraphia.
Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment
2
Intervention procedures incorporated into the program include drilling on sight words to improve immediate recognition of common words; engaging in Multiple Oral Reading procedures to increase reading fluency; practicing oral spelling of sight words to improve spelling accuracy; generating written sentences to improve accurate spelling and use of written conventions (e.g., punctuation, capitalization); and summarizing and subsequently writing sentences about read material to establish strategies to enhance reading comprehension and promote written expression.
Quality Living, Inc.
Omaha, Nebraska, United States
Change in score on Word Attack subtest of the Woodcock-Johnson III Test of Achievement.
Subtest raw sores range from 0 to 32,with higher scores indicating better performance.
Time frame: Change from baseline at 8 weeks
Change in score on Passage Comprehension subtest of the Woodcock-Johnson III Test of Achievement.
Subtest raw scores range from 0 to 47, with higher scores indicating better performance.
Time frame: Change from baseline at 8 weeks
Change in score on Word Reading subtest of the Wide Range Achievement Test 4.
Subtest raw scores range from 0 to 70, with higher scores indicating better performance.
Time frame: Change from baseline at 8 weeks
Change in score on Spelling subtest of the Wide Range Achievement Test 4.
Subtest raw scores range from 0 to 57, with higher scores indicating better performance.
Time frame: Change from baseline at 8 weeks
Change in score on Test of Silent Reading Speed and Efficiency.
Raw scores range from 0 to 70, with higher scores indicating better performance.
Time frame: Change from baseline at 8 weeks
Sight word decoding accuracy
Percent of correct decoding on 315 words included in Dolch pre-primer, primer, kindergarten, first grade, second grade, third grade, and nouns lists. Each word is scored as correct or incorrect, and a percent correct score is computed based on this scoring.
Time frame: One time per week for 8 weeks
Oral reading rate of passages
Words per minute (wpm) during independent oral reading of passages. The criteria for progression to subsequent passages is a reading rate of 80wpm or better.
Time frame: As the first of five tasks of each session for 8 weeks (each session is 1 hour).
Decoding errors during oral reading of passages
Percent of uncorrected word decoding errors in a specified passage. The criterion for progression to subsequent passages is fewer than 5% uncorrected words production errors.
Time frame: As the first of five tasks of each session for 8 weeks (each session is 1 hour).
Oral spelling of words
Number of words spelled correctly on lists containing 15 words each. Introduction of a new word list will occur only after a participant correctly spells all words on the current list.
Time frame: As the second of five tasks of each session for 8 weeks (each session is 1 hour).
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