Factors impacting clinician selection of words used in anomia treatment

Background: Providing anomia treatment requires clinicians to make treatment design decisions, including selecting the specific words used in treatment for their clients. Research literature provides guidance on factors to consider when selecting words for treatment, but it is not clear how clinicians incorporate this knowledge in their word selection processes. Aims: To understand factors impacting speech-language pathologists (SLPs) selection of words used in anomia treatment. Methods and Procedures: An online survey was completed by 33 SLPs who administer anomia treatment. They had a range of clinical experience, including by setting and years of practice. Survey development was informed by three clinician-research partners. The survey focused on selection of trained and untrained words. The survey asked how much different factors influenced general word selection processes and the selection of specific words. Outcomes and Results: Time, knowledge, skill, and resources were impactful to general word selection processes, with the most impactful factor being relevance of untrained words to treatment goals. Client difficulty (e.g. average accuracy over multiple naming attempts), material creation, psycholinguistic properties, and relatedness of untrained words to trained words were also impactful when selecting specific words, with the most impactful factor being client preference. Conclusion: SLPs have many decisions to make during treatment planning, including determining which words to use with their clients. An evidence-based practice perspective can be used to contextualize how clinicians might integrate differen tsources of knowledge to select words for anomia treatment. Understanding how clinicians make treatment design decisions is crucial for advancing implementation of anomia treatment in clinical settings.