Story Retelling Therapy

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In this project, we investigate how story retelling can support spoken discourse recovery in individuals with mild aphasia. Specifically, we examine whether listening to short stories and retelling them from memory can improve narrative accuracy, information retrieval, discourse coherence, and cognitive–linguistic efficiency.

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Participants complete a structured, nine-session intervention based on the Story Retelling Procedure (SRP). Each session includes memory-based story retelling, vocabulary and concept training, guided narrative reconstruction, and progressively more independent retelling of the full story.

We assess treatment changes using Information Units (IUs) and IUs per minute, allowing us to quantify improvements in informativeness and communication efficiency. Additional measures include the WAB-R Aphasia Quotient, working-memory span tasks, and cognitive screening scores.

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This project allows us to test two central questions:

1. Does story-retelling treatment improve spoken discourse production in mild aphasia?

2. Does repeatedly recalling and reconstructing narratives engage verbal working memory, and if so, how does this relate to discourse changes?

 

Findings from our feasibility work indicate that story retelling may enhance narrative production, stimulate cognitive mechanisms such as working memory, and lead to improvements that continue beyond the treatment period.