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Recruiting NCT07455162

Effects of Gesture Plus Verbal Treatment (GVT) in Cantonese Speakers With Aphasia

No phase Interventional Aphasia Gestures

For patients and families

In plain language

An automatic summary of structured registry data. It is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the official protocol or a physician assessment.

What is being studied
The protocol lists: Verbal treatment, Gesture plus verbal treatment.
Who it may be relevant to
Registry conditions: Aphasia, Gestures. Basic parameters: from 18 years · All.
What needs checking
Age, condition and sex are only basic indicators. Prior treatment, laboratory values and other mandatory requirements appear in the eligibility criteria below.
Where it takes place
Hong Kong
Next step
Save the trial, show it to the treating physician, and confirm current recruitment with the study center. Costs, documents and travel →

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Official title

Contrasting Effects of Verbal Treatment and Gesture Plus Verbal Treatment for Word Retrieval in Cantonese Speakers With Aphasia

Overview

This research aims to explore the relative efficacy of Verbal-only and GVT on naming difficulty in Cantonese-speaking people with aphasia (PWA). The primary research question in this study is: "For Cantonese-speaking people with aphasia, what are the relative effects of verbal treatment compared to gesture plus verbal treatment (GVT) on verbal and gesture naming at different levels?" People with aphasia will be engaged in a repeated measures experimental design. Participants will be engaged in two phases of training. In the first phase, participants will be assigned to receive verbal-only treatment. To minimize and prevent the carry-over effects caused by the first intervention, a one-month washout period will be implemented before the start of the second phase. After a washout period, participants will switch to GVT in the second phase.

Interventions

  • Behavioral Verbal treatment
    This study will involve the following naming interventions: 1) Semantic Features Analysis, 2) Modified Ortho-phonological cueing therapy and Phonological Component Analysis, and 3) Repetition with Cueing Hierarchy.
  • Behavioral Gesture plus verbal treatment
    This study will involve the following interventions: 1\) Combined Semantic and Gesture treatment, 2) Combined Phonological and Gesture treatment, and 3) Combined Repetition and Gesture treatment.

Primary outcome measures

  • Changes in the scores of the Naming Probes [Time frame: From enrollment to the end of treatment at 4 weeks]
Secondary outcome measures (5)
  • Changes in the scores of the Cantonese Aphasia Battery [Time frame: From enrollment to the end of treatment at 4 weeks]
  • Changes in the scores of the Comprehensive Aphasia Test [Time frame: From enrollment to the end of treatment at 4 weeks]
  • Changes in the scores of the Cantonese Boston Naming Test [Time frame: From enrollment to the end of treatment at 4 weeks]
  • Changes in the number of main concepts and gestures in discourse production tasks [Time frame: From enrollment to the end of treatment at 4 weeks]
  • Changes in the scores of the Functional Communication questionnaire [Time frame: From enrollment to the end of treatment at 4 weeks]

Eligibility criteria

Inclusion criteria

  • Diagnosed with aphasia
  • Demonstrate Word finding Difficulty (WFD)
  • Able to repeat single words
  • Normal (or corrected) vision and hearing
  • Aphasia resulting from a unilateral left hemisphere stroke
  • Premorbidly fluent in spoken Cantonese
  • Without significant cognitive impairments
  • Chronic aphasia resulting from a unilateral left hemisphere stroke

Exclusion criteria

  • A history of other neurological disorders
  • With the above moderate to severe or severe motor speech impairment
  • With moderate to severe apraxia of speech
  • With very mild or very severe aphasia

Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.

Healthy volunteers: No

Study design

Allocation
Non-randomized
Model
Sequential
Masking
Single blind
Primary purpose
Treatment

Study locations

Hong Kong · 1 center
  • The University of Hong Kong — Hong Kong

Publications

  • Yiu, E. M-L. (1992). Linguistic assessment of Chinese-speaking aphasics: Development of a Cantonese aphasia battery. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 7(4), 379-424. https://doi.org/10.1016/0911-6044(92)90025-R
  • Lau, S. W. -H. (2001). The Cantonese FACS feasibility with aphasic patients in Hong Kong. Unpublished bachelor dissertation, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
  • Kong, A. P.-H., & Wang, C. (2016). Main concept analysis (MCA) for oral discourse production. In. Hong Kong: The Commercial Press H.K Ltd.
  • Kong, A. P.-H., & Ng, C. Y.-T. (2022). Psycholinguistic Considerations for Adapting the Cantonese Version of Comprehensive Aphasia Test (Cant-CAT): A Feasibility Study. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, 7(4), 1211-1222. https://doi.org/doi:10.1044/2022_PERSP-22-00044
  • Kong AP, Law SP. A linguistic communication measure for monitoring changes in Chinese aphasic narrative production. Clin Linguist Phon. 2009 Apr;23(4):255-69. doi: 10.1080/02699200802673234. PMID 19382013
  • Cheung RW, Cheung MC, Chan AS. Confrontation naming in Chinese patients with left, right or bilateral brain damage. J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2004 Jan;10(1):46-53. doi: 10.1017/S1355617704101069. PMID 14751006
  • Kong, A. P.-H., Hu, A. Z., Wong, C. C.-T., & Wong, C. W.-Y. (2025). Effects of modified word and sentence level gesture plus verbal treatment (GVT) in Cantonese speakers with aphasia. Aphasiology, 1-32. https://doi.org/10.1080/02687038.2025.2540297

Identifiers

NCT: NCT07455162 · EA240609

Primary sources (government registries)

View this study on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗