Long-Term Recovery of Naming Abilities for Individuals with Aphasia

Abstract

Aphasia is an acquired language impairment that can affect multiple aspects of an individual's communication. Although aphasia can vary with each individual, a universal characteristic is anomia, an impairment of naming abilities. Many studies have examined improvement of language skills over time in this population, but few specifically look at naming recovery over time. This study examined long-term recovery of naming abilities using the Boston Naming Test (BNT) scores from participants in the University of Arizona Aphasia Research Project. Each participant's overall change in BNT scores and the slope of their recovery were calculated to determine extent and rate of longitudinal naming improvement. In addition, independent variables including age, education, time post-onset (TPO) in months, and initial BNT score were evaluated for their predictive value relative to naming improvement. The effects of behavioral treatment—group, individual, and both—were also examined relative to BNT change. There was significant improvement on both the BNT change score and slope across all levels of severity and treatment groups. In addition, none of the independent variables were significant predictors of improvement. These results indicated that significant improvement of naming abilities is possible years after a stroke, regardless of demographics and initial severity.