What do people with aphasia want to be able to say? A content analysis of words identified as personally relevant by people with aphasia

摘要

BackgroundudWord finding is a common difficulty for people with aphasia. Targeting words that are relevantudto the individual could maximise the usefulness and impact of word finding therapy.udAimsudTo provide insights into words that people with aphasia perceive to be personally relevant.udMethods and proceduresud100 people with aphasia were each asked to identify 100 words that would be particularlyudimportant for them to be able to say. Two speech and language therapist researchers conducteduda quantitative content analysis of the words selected. The words were coded into audframework of topics and subtopics. The frequency with which different words and topicsudwere selected was then calculated.udOutcomes and resultsud100 participants representing 20 areas of the United Kingdom ranged in age from 23 to 85udyears. Word finding difficulties ranged from mild to severe. The sample of 9999 wordsudselected for practice included 3095 different words in 27 topics. The majority of wordsudselected (79.4%) were from the topics ‘food and drink’ (30.6%), ‘nature and gardening’ud(10.3%), ‘entertainment’ (9.4%), ‘places’ (7.3%), ‘people’ (6.7%), ‘house’ (6.5%), ‘clothes’ud(5.2%) and ‘travel’ (3.5%). The 100 words types chosen with the greatest frequency wereudidentified. These account for 27 percent of the 9999 words chosen by the participants.udDiscussionudPersonally relevant vocabulary is unique to each individual and is likely to contain specific orudspecialist words for which material needs to be individually prepared. However there isudsome commonality in the words chosen by people with aphasia. This could inform pre-prepared materials for use in word finding therapy from which personally relevant wordsudcould be selected for practice.