Verb production difficulties in aphasia are influenced by discourse genre and communicative situation (Armstrong & Ferguson, 2010) and limit people’s ability to express their identity, opinions and feelings (Armstrong, 2005). Previously, the evidence has suggested that people with aphasia were restricted in their use of specific verb types (Armstrong 2001, 2005), however recent findings reveal a different picture (Cruice, Dipper, & Pritchard, 2011). This recent study analysed argument structure (Webster, Franklin & Howard 2007), verb semantic weight (Berndt, Haendiges, Mitchum, & Sandson, 1997), and semantic category (Halliday, 1985) in 58 older individuals (29 with aphasia; 29 without aphasia) who responded to six structured questions about their quality of life. They found that aphasic and non-aphasic speakers were more similar in verb production than they were different. In this talk, I will present the above findings for discussion, and report on a further study investigating the lexical diversity in verb production using contrasting discourse samples (the Western Aphasia Battery picture description task versus quality of life responses) in older adults with and without aphasia.
Madeline Cruice BSpPath (Hons), PhD, MRCSLT, FHEA, Senior Lecturer, School of Health Sciences, City University London, London UK
Dr Cruice is a senior member of the Division of Language and Communication Science at City University London. She completed her undergraduate degree in speech pathology in her native Queensland, Australia, and continued with doctoral study in quality of life at the same university in the Communication Disability in Ageing Research Unit. Her research interests include improving quality of life of individuals with aphasia post-stroke and their families, integrated reading therapies in post-stroke aphasia, and outcome measurement in acquired neurological conditions (clinical markers as well as clinician and patient perspectives). Madeline is pleased to be collaborating with doctoral students and staff at the University of Aveiro on aphasia and quality of life projects. The above mentioned project is a collaboration between quality of life and linguistics staff at City University London, specifically with Dr Lucy Dipper, and involving research staff Madeleine Pritchard and Elizabeth Walkden.
2012_5_8CruiceMadeline_poster.pdf - Poster (Acrobat 9.5.1 Pro file)
2012_5_8CruiceMadeline.pdf - Oral presentation (Acrobat 9.5.1 Pro file)