Treatment for Reading and Writing Deficits Following Acquired Brain Injury
Study Details
Study Description
Brief Summary
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.
| Condition or Disease | Intervention/Treatment | Phase |
|---|---|---|
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Study Design
Arms and Interventions
| Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
|---|---|
| Acquired brain injury participants People with acquired alexia and/or agraphia secondary to brain injury who participate in the reading/writing intervention. |
Behavioral: Multicomponent reading and writing treatment
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.
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Outcome Measures
Primary Outcome Measures
- Change in score on Word Attack subtest of the Woodcock-Johnson III Test of Achievement. [Change from baseline at 8 weeks]
Subtest raw sores range from 0 to 32,with higher scores indicating better performance.
- Change in score on Passage Comprehension subtest of the Woodcock-Johnson III Test of Achievement. [Change from baseline at 8 weeks]
Subtest raw scores range from 0 to 47, with higher scores indicating better performance.
- Change in score on Word Reading subtest of the Wide Range Achievement Test 4. [Change from baseline at 8 weeks]
Subtest raw scores range from 0 to 70, with higher scores indicating better performance.
- Change in score on Spelling subtest of the Wide Range Achievement Test 4. [Change from baseline at 8 weeks]
Subtest raw scores range from 0 to 57, with higher scores indicating better performance.
- Change in score on Test of Silent Reading Speed and Efficiency. [Change from baseline at 8 weeks]
Raw scores range from 0 to 70, with higher scores indicating better performance.
Secondary Outcome Measures
- Sight word decoding accuracy [One time per week for 8 weeks]
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.
- Oral reading rate of passages [As the first of five tasks of each session for 8 weeks (each session is 1 hour).]
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.
- Decoding errors during oral reading of passages [As the first of five tasks of each session for 8 weeks (each session is 1 hour).]
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.
- Oral spelling of words [As the second of five tasks of each session for 8 weeks (each session is 1 hour).]
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.
Eligibility Criteria
Criteria
Inclusion Criteria:
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Survivor of acquired brain injury
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Exhibits alexia and/or agraphia
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Past or current client of Quality Living, Inc., Omaha, Nebraska
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Fluent speaker of English
Exclusion Criteria:
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Vision impairment prohibiting reading of 24-point text
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Auditory comprehension problems precluding understanding of consent/assent information
Contacts and Locations
Locations
| Site | City | State | Country | Postal Code | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Quality Living, Inc. | Omaha | Nebraska | United States | 68104 |
Sponsors and Collaborators
- Quality Living, Inc.
Investigators
- Principal Investigator: Karen Hux, Ph.D., Quality Living, Inc., Omaha, Nebraska
Study Documents (Full-Text)
None provided.More Information
Publications
None provided.- Reading/writing treatment