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Evidence of generalization to connected speech following lexical retrieval treatment in Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) is scarce. Consequently, this study systematically investigated changes in verb phrase production following lexical retrieval treatment in a series of single case experimental design studies. Four individuals with PPA (three semantic- and one logopenic variant PPA) who had previously demonstrated that they could integrate verbs and nouns into sentence structures in a cueing paradigm, undertook a sequence of verb and noun lexical retrieval treatments using Repetition and Reading in the Presence of a Picture. Production of treated nouns- and/or verbs-in-isolation significantly improved following treatment for three of the four participants. Verb phrase production did not improve for one of these participants (logopenic PPA), perhaps due to the relatively small treatment dose. Two participants (semantic variant PPA) did, however, demonstrate across-level generalization, with improvement in treated verbs and using those verbs in (untreated) verb phrases. Their verb phrase production improved most after lexical retrieval treatment for both nouns and verbs, suggesting this combined approach may benefit across-level generalization for some individuals in clinical practice.

This study investigated whether a treatment programme for spoken word retrieval, supplemented with written naming, was beneficial for an individual with right-hemisphere dominant semantic variant of PPA (svPPA). Assessment and treatment were delivered remotely through Skype. Treatment consisted of two phases of lexical retrieval therapy (Repetition and Reading in the Presence of a Picture: RRIPP), with and without written responses (Phases 1 and 2 respectively), and a third treatment phase based on the procedures of Conceptual Enrichment (COEN) therapy. The first two phases of treatment resulted in short-lasting improvements in spoken and written word retrieval, with greater improvement in Phase 2 when written production was also required. Both treatment phases resulted in gains only for treated items, but generalised to different depictions to those treated. However, Phase 2 also resulted in significant improvement of treated items on a comprehension task. COEN treatment did not result in significant gains in word retrieval or comprehension. This study reinforces the value of a simple lexical retrieval treatment delivered remotely. It adds to the current evidence that anomia in svPPA can be responsive to treatment, but also shows that challenges remain regarding maintenance effects and the generalisation of treatment effects to connected speech.