Indications for the facilitating effect of MIT repetition in aphasic patients: A study on regular aphasia tests, articulatory and phonological deficits as predictors for facilitation of MIT repetition

Abstract

Background: Melodic Intonation Therapy is a speech production therapy for aphasic patients, in which melodic aspect of speech are used to improve speech production. The therapy has shown to be effective for a specific group of patients. Furthermore, MIT is a very intensive therapy. Therefore, there is relevance to know for which patients MIT is facilitating. Aim: The main goal of this study is to determine indications for the facilitation of MIT repetition. Materials and methods: In 11 aphasic patients, who are possible MIT candidates, normal repetition is compared to MIT repetition. This study analyzes the differences between patients that do or do not show facilitation for MIT repetition. There will be looked at scores on regular aphasia tests and articulatory or phonological problems shown in these tasks. Results: Most patients do not show facilitation of MIT repetition. This is remarkable, because patients and therapists often report facilitation for MIT repetition. Only two patients showed facilitation and two patients showed decline for MIT repetition. The patients in whom facilitation was found suffered from articulatory difficulties. Conclusions: In most patients examined in this study, MIT repetition does not facilitate speech production. Therefore, no predictors could be differentiated for the purpose of indicating MIT candidates.