Disclaimer: this resource is intended for speech and language therapists and students of this profession. If you require therapy for aphasia please contact a speech and language therapist.
Verb Network Strengthening Treatment (VNeST)
Summary: Developed by Edmonds (2009), Verb Network Strengthening Treatment (VNeST) is an approach that targets verbs (e.g. kick) as well as their related thematic roles (e.g. footballer - ball). Clients are asked to generate thematic roles for given verbs. It is based on the theory that verbs and their thematic roles are interrelated in the semantic system (McRae, Ferretti, & Amyote, 1997).
Example:
1) The client is presented with a verb (e.g. ‘kick’ in written and/or picture form) and asked to generate 3 agent-patient pairs for this verb. Semantic cues can be given, e.g. “Can you think of someone who kicks for their job?” / “Can you think of something a footballer kicks?”. The therapist writes down these sentences. If the client generates a personal example, e.g. “My son kicks a ball”, this is to be encouraged and generalised to other, more general statements later.
2) The client then reads the 3 sentences (agent+verb+patient) aloud, with support from therapist if needed.
3) The client then answers 3 wh- questions about each of the 3 sentences generated above (e.g. “Where/When/Why does a footballer kick a ball?”)
4) The therapist then reads the client 12 sentences based on the 3 sentences generated above (4 variations on each sentence). One will be correct, one will have an inappropriate agent, one will have an inappropriate patient and one will have thematic reversal. The client must state whether a sentence is correct or incorrect. For example:
(See Edmonds, 2014, for details on delivery of VNeST)
1) The client is presented with a verb (e.g. ‘kick’ in written and/or picture form) and asked to generate 3 agent-patient pairs for this verb. Semantic cues can be given, e.g. “Can you think of someone who kicks for their job?” / “Can you think of something a footballer kicks?”. The therapist writes down these sentences. If the client generates a personal example, e.g. “My son kicks a ball”, this is to be encouraged and generalised to other, more general statements later.
2) The client then reads the 3 sentences (agent+verb+patient) aloud, with support from therapist if needed.
3) The client then answers 3 wh- questions about each of the 3 sentences generated above (e.g. “Where/When/Why does a footballer kick a ball?”)
4) The therapist then reads the client 12 sentences based on the 3 sentences generated above (4 variations on each sentence). One will be correct, one will have an inappropriate agent, one will have an inappropriate patient and one will have thematic reversal. The client must state whether a sentence is correct or incorrect. For example:
- The footballer kicks the ball (correct sentence)
- The car kicks the ball (inappropriate agent)
- The footballer kicks the roof (inappropriate patient)
- The ball kicks the footballer (thematic reversal)
(See Edmonds, 2014, for details on delivery of VNeST)
Evidence Base: Edmonds, Nadeau, & Kiran (2009) delivered VNeST to four participants with aphasia twice a week. Findings indicated improvements in word retrieval for both trained and untrained nouns and verbs. Improvements were also noted at the level of connected speech for 3 of the 4 participants. A follow-up VNeST study (Edmonds, Mammino, & Ojeda, 2014) involving 11 participants with aphasia reported similar results.
Edmonds & Babb (2011) investigated the use of VNeST for participants with moderate-severe aphasia. Results show that the two participants who received VNeST made less marked gains that previous studies (which delivered VNeST to participants with less severe aphasia) and, while both participants showed some generalisation to untrained sentences and verbs, the degree of generalisation varied considerably.
Edmonds & Babb (2011) investigated the use of VNeST for participants with moderate-severe aphasia. Results show that the two participants who received VNeST made less marked gains that previous studies (which delivered VNeST to participants with less severe aphasia) and, while both participants showed some generalisation to untrained sentences and verbs, the degree of generalisation varied considerably.
References
Edmonds, L.A., 2014. Tutorial for Verb Network Strengthening Treatment (VNeST): Detailed description of the treatment protocol with corresponding theoretical rationale. SIG 2 Perspectives on Neurophysiology and Neurogenic Speech and Language Disorders, 24(3), 78-88
Edmonds, L.A. & Babb, M., 2011. The effect of Verb Network Strengthening Treatment (VNeST) on persons with moderate-severe aphasia. American Journal of Speech Language Pathology, 20(2), 131-145
Edmonds, L.A., Mammino, K., & Ojeda, J., 2014. Effect of Verb Network Strengthening Treatment (VNeST) in persons with aphasia: extension and replication of previous findings. American Journal of Speech Language Pathology, 23(2), 312-29
Edmonds, L.A., Nadeau, S.E., & Kiran, S., 2009. Effect of verb network strengthening treatment (VNeST) on lexical retrieval of content words in sentences with persons with aphasia. Aphasiology, 23(3), 402-24
McRae, K., Ferretti, T.R., & Amyote, L., 1997. Thematic roles as verb-specific concepts. Language and Cognitive Processes, 12(2/3), 137-176
Edmonds, L.A., 2014. Tutorial for Verb Network Strengthening Treatment (VNeST): Detailed description of the treatment protocol with corresponding theoretical rationale. SIG 2 Perspectives on Neurophysiology and Neurogenic Speech and Language Disorders, 24(3), 78-88
Edmonds, L.A. & Babb, M., 2011. The effect of Verb Network Strengthening Treatment (VNeST) on persons with moderate-severe aphasia. American Journal of Speech Language Pathology, 20(2), 131-145
Edmonds, L.A., Mammino, K., & Ojeda, J., 2014. Effect of Verb Network Strengthening Treatment (VNeST) in persons with aphasia: extension and replication of previous findings. American Journal of Speech Language Pathology, 23(2), 312-29
Edmonds, L.A., Nadeau, S.E., & Kiran, S., 2009. Effect of verb network strengthening treatment (VNeST) on lexical retrieval of content words in sentences with persons with aphasia. Aphasiology, 23(3), 402-24
McRae, K., Ferretti, T.R., & Amyote, L., 1997. Thematic roles as verb-specific concepts. Language and Cognitive Processes, 12(2/3), 137-176
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