Cognitive Approaches to Writing Rehabilitation: From Single Case to Group Studies

Two rehabilitation programs were devised for aphasies’ writing disturbances according to current dual route model(s) of writing function. The phonological treatment stimulated writing by means of nonlexical phoneme to grapheme conversion procedures whereas the visual-semantic one re-trained patients in writing by practising whole word forms. Six aphasie patients received both treatment programs in a cross-over design. Overall results showed that the effects of both treatment procedures were significant and that learning transferred to untreated items. Furthermore, following tests provided evidence that patients retained what they had learned. However, when single case improvement was taken into account, almost all patients were found to respond only to one treatment. The results are consistent with a view that the effectiveness of a writing rehabilitation procedure relies on (partially) spared components of writing system to which the procedure itself proposes to affect.