TREATMENT

GOALS AND
TARGETS IN
APHASIA
TREATMENT GUIDELINES
• Plan multiple tasks per session
• Make the patient an active participant in treatment
• Adjust the rate of presentation
• Progress through a hierarchy of difficulty
• Avoid correction of errors
• Make treatment relevant to patient’s needs
• Provide encouragement and reward
• Provide adequate intensity of treatment
• Demonstrate an attitude of interest in the patient
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TREATMENT GOALS
• Goal setting process
• Long-term goals
• Short-term goals
• Communication targets for different aphasia types

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GOAL SETTING PROCESS
• Should be guided by the particular needs and circumstances of each
individual patient
• The PWA should indicate to you what is and is not important to him/her
• Goals should then be determined accordingly

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GOAL SETTING PROCESS
• What PWA want:
• Return to pre-stroke life
• Communication
• Information
• Speech therapy and other health services
• Control and independence
• Dignity and respect
• Social, leisure, and work
• Altruism and contribution to society
• Physical function and health

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LONG TERM GOALS
• Must be functional

• Must have a time limit

• Must have a means of measurement

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LTG EXAMPLES
• To improve Mr. P’s functional communication skills by December 31,
2021, by improving word retrieval and auditory comprehension at the
sentence level as measured by criterion referenced assessment and by
informal report.

• To prepare Mr. P for successful return to work by December 31, 2021,

by improving his conversational skills in a small group situation as
measured by clinician generated assessment tools.

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SHORT TERM GOALS
• Must relate to the Long Term Goal!

• Must be measurable

• Must have a time limit

• Must be specific

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STG EXAMPLES
• When presented with a field of 4 pictures, by December 31, 2021, Mr. P
will point to the picture corresponding to the clinician’s verbally
presented sentence stimulus with 90% accuracy with no cues over 2
consecutive sessions.

• By December 31, 2021, Mr. P will have no more than 5 instances of

word retrieval difficulties in 15 minutes of spontaneous conversation
with the clinician over 2 consecutive sessions.

• By December 31, 2021, Mr. P will correctly utilize word retrieval

compensatory strategies in 90% of his episodes of word retrieval 9
COMMUNICATION TARGETS
FOR WERNICKE’S APHASIA
• Improve auditory comprehension, particularly at the single word level
(starting out)
• Increase patient’s awareness of paraphasic errors
• Decrease production of paraphasic errors
• Determine whether reading is better than auditory comprehension
• Emphasize communication content rather than structure
• Improve listening skills of those interacting with the patient…they need
to become more active listeners for the patient’s communication

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COMMUNICATION TARGETS
FOR BROCA’S APHASIA
• Auditory comprehension at the sentence and paragraph level

• Verbal expression tasks such as sequencing, categorizing, story retelling,

and high level word retrieval

• Tasks to address agrammatism such as increased use of pronouns,

articles, and prepositions

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COMMUNICATION TARGET
FOR CONDUCTION APHASIA
• Improve higher level listening skills

• Decrease paraphasic errors

• Emphasis on content over structure

• Use of context to aid word finding

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COMMUNICATION TARGETS
FOR ANOMIC APHASIA
• Improve word retrieval abilities with emphasis on self-cueing strategies

• Improve auditory comprehension skills

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COMMUNICATION TARGETS
FOR GLOBAL APHASIA
• Improve auditory comprehension

• Use functionally relevant words for verbal expression tasks

• Improve non-verbal expression

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QUESTIONS?

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RESOURCES
• https://www.asha.org/slp/icf/

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