Morgan et al.

(2007)

United Kingdom

Pre-Post

N=3

Population: TBI; Mean Age=15.0yr; Gender: Male=2, Female=1; Mean Time Post Injury=3.3yr; Mean GCS=4.

Intervention: Patients received Electropalatography (EPG), a technique that requires the patient to wear a mould of the upper palate containing sensors that provide feedback to clinicians regarding tongue movement and the duration of phoneme production. Patients were treated 1/wk for 10 wk with each session lasting 45 min. Assessments were conducted at baseline and at post-treatment.

Outcome Measure: Consonant imprecision, prolonged phoneme length, Children’s Speech Intelligibility Measure (CSIM), Assessment of Intelligibility of Dysarthric Speech (ASSIDS).

1.        Consonant imprecision was reduced from mild-moderate to mild, moderate to mild and marked to moderate across the three patients.

2.        Prolonged phoneme length was reduced from moderate to mild in two patients, and marked to moderate in one patient.

3.        Single-word intelligibility, measured by the CSIM, was found to have improved in one patient from baseline to follow-up (76% to 92%), minor improvement in one patient (82% to 94%) and no improvement in the remaining patient (96% and 96%).

4.        Sentence-level intelligibility, measured by the ASSIDS, improved by 10% in two patients (74% to 84%, and 80% to 90%) and by 8% in one patient (94% to 92%).

Wiseman-Hakes et al.

(1998)

Canada

Case Series

N=6

Population: ABI: TBI=5, Unspecified ABI=1; Mean Age=14.8yr; Gender: Male=3, Female=3; Mean Time Post Injury=3.1yr; Mean GCS=3.7.

Intervention: Patients participated in a group program that taught patients how to give feedback and rate each other’s communication abilities, how to cue each other to assist with self-monitoring, and practice conversations. Program sessions were conducted for 1 hr/day 4 days/wk with the program lasting for 6 wk. Assessments were performed at baseline, post-treatment and at 6 mo follow-up.

Outcome Measure: Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago Rating Scale of Pragmatic Communication Skills (RICE-RSPCS), Communication Performance Scale (CPS), Vineland Adaptive Behaviour Scales-Socialization Domain (VABS-S).

1.        The mean scores for the RICE-RSPCS increased by 44% with the Nonverbal Communication (p=0.010), Use of Linguistic Context (p=0.005), Organization of a Narrative (p=0.006) (all p=0.002) and Conversation Skills (p=0.001) from baseline to post-treatment.

2.        Significant improvement was also reported on the RICE-RSPCS Nonverbal Communication, Use of Linguistic Context, Organization of a Narrative,(all p=0.002) and Conversation Skills (p=0.001) subscales when comparing scores at baseline to follow-up.

3.        Patients significantly improved in CPS scores from baseline to post-treatment (p=0.001) and at baseline to follow-up (p=0.002).

4.        Scores on the VABS-S did not reveal any significant changes at any time during the study.

5.        No significant differences were reported from post-treatment to 6mo follow-up on any measures.