Individuals with left-hemisphere damage often have concomitant
impairment of spoken and written language. Whereas some treatment studies
have shown that reading paired with spoken naming can benefit both
language modalities, little systematic research has been directed toward
the treatment of spelling combined with spoken naming. The purpose of this
study was to examine the therapeutic effect of pairing a lexical spelling
treatment referred to as Copy and Recall Treatment (CART) with verbal
repetition of target words. This approach (CART + Repetition) was compared
with treatment using verbal repetition without the inclusion of
orthographic training (Repetition Only). Two individuals with moderate
aphasia and severe impairment of spelling participated in the study using
a multiple baseline design across stimulus sets and treatment conditions.
Both participants improved spelling of targeted words as well as spoken
naming of those items, but improvement in spoken naming was marked for one
individual in the CART + Repetition condition, while the other participant
made smaller gains in spoken than written naming irrespective of treatment
condition. Consideration of the participant profiles suggested that CART +
Repetition provides greater benefit when there is some residual
phonological ability and the treatment serves to stimulate links between
orthography and phonology. (JINS, 2006, 12,
816–827.)