Strengthening Verb Networks

SKILL: Talking

DIFFICULTY: 4/5

LEVELS: N/A. There are 10 sets of 10 verbs each.

BRIEF RATIONALE: This treatment targets verbs and their thematic roles to improve retrieval.

In Strengthening Verb Networks, you will read an action word and create three sentences via typing or dictation. Then, you will be asked to recall the action word.

SEQUENCE:

1. Create 1: Produce WHO and WHAT given a verb ( baker mix  batter)
2. Create 2: And again using the same verb (construction worker mix cement)
3. Create 3: One more time using the same verb ( bartender mix drink)
4. Read: Read all 3 sentences aloud to practice saying multi-word sentences (add articles and conjugations as desired)
5. Recall: Retrieve the verb independently

HINT: A hint button is available in the lower-left corner of the screen to provide multiple-choice options for WHO and WHAT on steps 1-3. On the recall step, the hint button will reveal the subjects and objects from the sentences you just created.  

Note: Using the hints will mark the item as incorrect (since it was not answered independently), but they may still help you.

Feedback is provided on the plausibility of a given subject or object. If you disagree with the scoring assessment, you can override the score.

A reminder to use unique words is provided if you reuse a subject or object.

FOR THE CLINICIAN:

This treatment is based on the Verb Network Strengthening Treatment (VNeST). Producing multiple agents (WHO) and patients (WHAT) for a verb strengthens its thematic roles and activates syntactic elements of sentences (Edmonds et al., 2014). So the patient isn't just practicing a verb; they're binding different roles to actions and building a strong semantic network. This is how VNeST improves the retrieval of untrained words at different levels: from single words to sentences to conversations (Edmonds, 2016). VNeST is appropriate for patients with mild, moderate, or moderate-severe aphasia, both fluent and non-fluent.

Strengthening Verb Networks includes transitive and ambitransitive verbs (so they can all take a patient), and each set of 10 verbs is semantically balanced. This means there aren't two verbs in the same semantic category within a set (like mix and stir). This helps support generalization.

FUN FACT: The first two sets of verbs are taken directly from the original research!

Tactus Therapy has been making the VNeST approach more accessible to clinicians and patients since the release of Advanced Naming Therapy in 2016. The Create activity is one of the most popular in our library. However, many clinicians say they skip the Expand portion because it's too hard for their patients or takes too long. Most clinicians admit to always skipping the final Compose step.

To encourage more practice opportunities across a wider range of abilities, we did not include semantic plausibility, grammaticality judgment, or sentence expansion (when, where, and why) in this adaptation of VNeST.

The main focus is on generating agents and patients. It also allows patients to strengthen semantic-phonological connections by reading aloud and encourages independent retrieval by recalling the verb.

Since this VNeST modification isn't as time-consuming as the original approach, patients will likely be able to complete more verbs per session.

Sentence expansion and oral reading of longer sentences can be addressed in other tasks.

Selected References:

1. Edmonds, L. A. (2016). A review of verb network strengthening treatment. Topics in Language Disorders, 36(2), 123–135.

2. Edmonds, L. A., Mammino, K., & Ojeda, J. (2014). Effect of verb network strengthening treatment (VNeST) in persons with aphasia: Extension and replication of previous findings. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 23(2).