Efficacy of the Adapted Melodic Intonation Therapy: a case study of a Broca’s Aphasia Patient

Abstract

Introduction: Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT) is a therapeutic method which uses the abilityto sing to promote the recovery of linguistic deficits in aphasic patients with primarily expressiveimpairment. Objective: Testing the efficacy of a music-based language rehabilitation program, adaptedfrom MIT in a patient with Broca’s aphasia due to stroke in the left cerebral hemisphere (LH). Method:This research used the methodology of AB single case experimental design with multiple baselines.The participant G. is a female, right-handed, 46-year-old Brazilian; presenting Broca’s aphasia. G.suffered an ischemic stroke five years before speech therapy intervention began. Neuropsycholinguisticevaluation was undertaken before, during, and at the end of therapy. The treatment took place over threemonths, in two weekly meetings (24 sessions). Results: significant improvement was observed in verbalfluency, with an increased number of words produced per minute during conversational speech, anomiareduction, improved syntax and reduction of speech dyspraxia. Regarding neuropsychological functions,improvements were observed in the following functions: attention, working memory, verbal episodicsemantic memory (recognition), naming, reading sentences aloud, identifying words and repeating words.Conclusion: the neuropsychological functions which were not trained in the MIT process remained thesame before and after therapy. This indicates that improvements in the trained functions occurred due tointervention. Thus, it can be concluded that the MIT has proven effective in this case of Broca’s aphasia.