The study aims to assess an individual or self-administered computer therapy's effectiveness in grammatical time marking. The main objective is to examine whether the therapy improves grammatical time marking of inflected verbs treated on the sessions. We also explore whether the observed progress can be transferred to untrained items, more ecological contexts and if is maintained two and four weeks after the end of treatment. This therapy will be administered to six individuals with brain lesions after stroke. Four individuals will take part of the individual therapy and two individuals will take part of the self-administered computer therapy. The therapy will last one month, at the rate of three weekly sessions of approximately one hour.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
6
The treatment focuses on grammatical time marking. The aim of the treatment is to train underlying grammatical time marking processes, which were identified as deficient during a preliminary evaluation. The intervention is composed of 4 steps inspired by models and hypotheses from the literature on the subject. Step 1: "temporal adverbial selection", subject must identify the tense encoded in sentences and select the correct adverbial among those proposed. Step 2: "selection of inflected verb forms", subject must identify the tense encoded in the sentence and select the correct verb form among those proposed. Step 3: "production of inflected verb forms", subject must identify the tense encoded in the sentence and produce inflected verbs. Step 4: "semantic narration", subject must describe scenes using verbs inflected according to the previously defined reference time.
Université de Neuchâtel
Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Change from the score on an inflected verb production task after the end of the therapy: treated items
The inflected verb production task evaluates subject's ability to produce an inflected verb form according to time context given by a short sentence. The score is obtained by adding the points (0 or 1) obtained for each item and is calculated per time reference. The task will be administered three times before the therapy (baselines), once in the middle of the therapy (after 2 weeks of treatment) and directly (24-48 hours) after the last session of the therapy (post-treatment) to analyze the change of performance.
Time frame: Baselines, middle of the treatment (after 2 weeks of treatment), post-treatment (24-48 hours after the last session of the therapy)
Change from time accuracy on a semantic narration task after the end of the therapy: treated semantic narrations
The semantic narration task evaluates subject's ability to produce inflected verb forms according to time context. Semantic narrations are based on imagined stories and according to a given temporal frame. This task includes 2 pictorial sequences per temporal reference. The accuracy of time marking in semantic narration task is calculated using ratios. The task will be administered three times before the therapy (baselines), once in the middle of the therapy (after 2 weeks of treatment) and directly (24-48 hours) after the last session of the therapy (post-treatment) to analyze the change of performance.
Time frame: Baselines, middle of the treatment (after 2 weeks of treatment), post-treatment (24-48 hours after the last session of the therapy)
Change from the score on an inflected verb production task after the end of the therapy: untreated items
The inflected verb production task evaluates subject's ability to produce an inflected verb form according to time context given by a short sentence. The score is obtained by adding the points (0 or 1) obtained for each item and is calculated per time reference. The task will be administered three times before the therapy (baselines), once in the middle of the therapy (after 2 weeks of treatment) and directly (24-48 hours) after the last session of the therapy (post-treatment) to analyze the change of performance.
Time frame: Baselines, middle of the treatment (after 2 weeks of treatment), post-treatment (24-48 hours after the last session of the therapy)
Change from time accuracy on a semantic narration task after the end of the therapy: untreated semantic narrations
The semantic narration task evaluates subject's ability to produce inflected verb forms according to time context. Semantic narrations are based on imagined stories and according to a given temporal frame. This task includes 2 pictorial sequences per temporal reference. The accuracy of time marking in semantic narration task is calculated using ratios. The task will be administered three times before the therapy (baselines), once in the middle of the therapy (after 2 weeks of treatment) and directly (24-48 hours) after the last session of the therapy (post-treatment) to analyze the change of performance.
Time frame: Baselines, middle of the treatment (after 2 weeks of treatment), post-treatment (24-48 hours after the last session of the therapy)
Change from the score on an inflected verb production task 2 and 4 weeks after the end of the therapy: treated items
The inflected verb production task evaluates subject's ability to produce an inflected verb form according to time context given by a short sentence. The score is obtained by adding the points (0 or 1) obtained for each item and is calculated per time reference. The task will be administered directly (24-48 hours) after the last session of the therapy (post-treatment) and 2-4 weeks after the treatment (follow-up) to analyze the maintenance of performance.
Time frame: Post-treatment (24-48 hours after the last session of the therapy), 2-4 weeks follow-up
Change from the score on an inflected verb production task 2 and 4 weeks after the end of the therapy: untreated items
The inflected verb production task evaluates subject's ability to produce an inflected verb form according to time context given by a short sentence. The score is obtained by adding the points (0 or 1) obtained for each item and is calculated per time reference. The task will be administered directly (24-48 hours) after the last session of the therapy (post-treatment) and 2-4 weeks after the treatment (follow-up) to analyze the maintenance of performance.
Time frame: Post-treatment (24-48 hours after the last session of the therapy), 2-4 weeks follow-up
Change from time accuracy on a semantic narration task 2 and 4 weeks after the end of the therapy: treated semantic narrations
The semantic narration task evaluates subject's ability to produce inflected verb forms according to time context. Semantic narrations are based on imagined stories and according to a given temporal frame. This task includes 2 pictorial sequences per temporal reference. The accuracy of time marking in the semantic narration task is calculated using ratios. The task will be administered directly (24-48 hours) after the last session of the therapy (post-treatment) and 2-4 weeks after the treatment (follow-up) to analyze the maintenance of performance.
Time frame: Post-treatment (24-48 hours after the last session of the therapy), 2-4 weeks follow-up
Change from time accuracy on a semantic narration task 2 and 4 weeks after the end of the therapy: untreated semantic narrations
The semantic narration task evaluates subject's ability to produce inflected verb forms according to time context. Semantic narrations are based on imagined stories and according to a given temporal frame. This task includes 2 pictorial sequences per temporal reference. The accuracy of time marking in the semantic narration task is calculated using ratios. The task will be administered directly (24-48 hours) after the last session of the therapy (post-treatment) and 2-4 weeks after the treatment (follow-up) to analyze the maintenance of performance.
Time frame: Post-treatment (24-48 hours after the last session of the therapy), 2-4 weeks follow-up
Change from the score on an inflected verb production task 2 and 4 weeks after the end of the therapy: treated items
The inflected verb production task evaluates subject's ability to produce an inflected verb form according to time context given by a short sentence. The score is obtained by adding the points (0 or 1) obtained for each item and is calculated per time reference. The task will be administered three times before the therapy (baselines) and 2-4 weeks after the treatment (follow-up) to analyze the long-term change of performance.
Time frame: Baselines, 2-4 weeks follow-up
Change from the score on an inflected verb production task 2 and 4 weeks after the end of the therapy: untreated items
The inflected verb production task evaluates subject's ability to produce an inflected verb form according to time context given by a short sentence. The score is obtained by adding the points (0 or 1) obtained for each item and is calculated per time reference. The task will be administered three times before the therapy (baselines) and 2-4 weeks after the treatment (follow-up) to analyze the long-term change of performance.
Time frame: Baselines, 2-4 weeks follow-up
Change from time accuracy on a semantic narration task 2 and 4 weeks after the end of the therapy: treated semantic narrations
The semantic narration task evaluates subject's ability to produce inflected verb forms according to time context. Semantic narrations are based on imagined stories and according to a given temporal frame. This task includes 2 pictorial sequences per temporal reference. The accuracy of time marking in the semantic narration task is calculated using ratios. The task will be administered three times before the therapy (baselines) and 2-4 weeks after the treatment (follow-up) to analyze the long-term change of performance.
Time frame: Baselines, 2-4 weeks follow-up
Change from time accuracy on a semantic narration task 2 and 4 weeks after the end of the therapy: untreated semantic narrations
The semantic narration task evaluates subject's ability to produce inflected verb forms according to time context. Semantic narrations are based on imagined stories and according to a given temporal frame. This task includes 2 pictorial sequences per temporal reference. The accuracy of time marking in the semantic narration task is calculated using ratios. The task will be administered three times before the therapy (baselines) and 2-4 weeks after the treatment (follow-up) to analyze the long-term change of performance.
Time frame: Baselines, 2-4 weeks follow-up
Change from time accuracy on an episodic/procedural narration task after the end of the therapy
The episodic/procedural narration task evaluates subject's ability to produce inflected verb forms according to time context in a narrative situation. This task is administered in order to analyze the transfer of the gains of the therapy to a more ecological context (as it is free of verbal or pictorial support). The accuracy of time marking in the semantic narration task is calculated using ratios. The task will be administered three times before the therapy (baselines), once in the middle of the therapy (after 2 weeks of treatment) and directly (24-48 hours) after the last session of the therapy (post-treatment) to analyze the change of performance.
Time frame: Baselines, middle of the treatment (after 2 weeks of treatment), post-treatment (24-48 hours after the last session of the therapy)
Change from time accuracy on an episodic/procedural narration task 2 and 4 weeks after the end of the therapy
The episodic/procedural narration task evaluates subject's ability to produce inflected verb forms according to time context in a narrative situation. This task is administered in order to analyze the transfer of the gains of the therapy to a more ecological context (as it is free of verbal or pictorial support). The accuracy of time marking in the semantic narration task is calculated using ratios. The task will be administered directly (24-48 hours) after the last session of the therapy (post-treatment) and 2-4 weeks after the treatment (follow-up) to analyze the maintenance of performance.
Time frame: Post-treatment (24-48 hours after the last session of the therapy), 2-4 weeks follow-up
Change from time accuracy on an episodic/procedural narration task 2 and 4 weeks after the end of the therapy
The episodic/procedural narration task evaluates subject's ability to produce inflected verb forms according to time context in a narrative situation. This task is administered in order to analyze the transfer of the gains of the therapy to a more ecological context (as it is free of verbal or pictorial support). The accuracy of time marking in the semantic narration task is calculated using ratios. The task will be administered three times before the therapy (baselines) and 2-4 weeks after the treatment (follow-up) to analyze the long-term change of performance.
Time frame: Baselines, 2-4 weeks follow-up
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Change at a control task after the end of the therapy
The control task ensures that progress is specific to the treatment. This task is specific to each participant: it is a logopedic/neuropsychological test for which the participant has deficit scores and whose content is not influenced by the treatment (e.g., a test on calculation). The task will be administered three times before the therapy (baselines), once in the middle of the therapy (after 2 weeks of treatment) and directly (24-48 hours) after the last session of the therapy (post-treatment) to analyze the change of performance.
Time frame: Baselines, middle of the treatment (after 2 weeks of treatment), post-treatment (24-48 hours after the last session of the therapy)
Change at a control task 2 and 4 weeks after the end of the therapy
The control task ensures that progress is specific to the treatment. This task is specific to each participant: it is a logopedic/neuropsychological test for which the participant has deficit scores and whose content is not influenced by the treatment (e.g., a test on calculation). The task will be administered directly (24-48 hours) after the last session of the therapy (post-treatment) and 2-4 weeks after the treatment (follow-up) to analyze the maintenance of performance.
Time frame: Post-treatment (24-48 hours after the last session of the therapy), 2-4 weeks follow-up
Change at a control task 2 and 4 weeks after the end of the therapy
The control task ensures that progress is specific to the treatment. This task is specific to each participant: it is a logopedic/neuropsychological test for which the participant has deficit scores and whose content is not influenced by the treatment (e.g., a test on calculation). The task will be administered three times before the therapy (baselines) and 2-4 weeks after the treatment (follow-up) to analyze the long-term change of performance.
Time frame: Baselines, 2-4 weeks follow-up