The Effectiveness of Melodic Intonation Therapy on English Speaking Adults with Expressive Aphasia

Abstract

Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT) has been a resource for working with adults with aphasia since 1973 when Albert, Helm and Sparks created this music-based intervention. MIT involves intoning short utterances while simultaneously using the left hand to tap the rhythm of syllables. This research project investigates the effectiveness of MIT intervention for an aphasic population. This was experimental research using a pre-test - post-test between subjects single design including two males presenting with aphasia (n=2). They participated in a controlled intervention during a 12 week period of cognitive therapy. The first six weeks of the intervention program consisted of language and cognition intervention only (LCI) while the second six weeks consisted of LCI with MIT (LCIM). Results revealed the post test for LCIM was the single factor that was moving towards significance as was indicated in the p of 0.07. MIT was somewhat effective in making a significant impact on more basic cognitive language skills, such as repetition, naming and word finding, when compared to higher functioning skills, such as spontaneous speech and auditory verbal comprehension. This was evident in patterns observed in growth of scores of formal and informal measures for the two participants in this research.