The Efficacy of Visual Action Therapy on the Communication Abilities of Mandarin-Speaking Individual with Global Aphasia: A single-case study

Global aphasia is the most severe form of aphasia, with significant impairments in expression, comprehension, repetition, naming, reading, and writing. Despite severe language deficits, some patients can convey information through gestures, and perform normally on non-verbal tasks. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of Visual Action Therapy (VAT) in communication for the individual with global aphasia, focusing on picture recognition, gesture expression, and verbal expression. The research methodology adopts a single-case study, with a severely impaired global aphasia case who speaks Mandarin as the subject. VAT was used to train the subject in expressing themselves through gestures. During the VAT process, activities such as picture-object matching were incorporated, and some language intervention strategies utilized gesture prompts to aid verbal expression. Therefore, the researchers sought to explore the efficacy of VAT on the communication abilities in three areas for the patient with global aphasia.
The results of the study showed that there was a significant improvement in the subject`s picture recognition, and some improvement in gesture communication ability, but no effect was found in verbal expression. After the withdrawal of VAT intervention, the accuracy of picture recognition showed maintenance of effects. Both the individual with global aphasia and their caregivers expressed support and affirmation of the VAT intervention.