Book Description

Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT) was developed by Albert, Sparks and Helm in 1973 and published by Helm-Estabrooks, Nicholas and Morgan in 1989 to address specific characteristics associated with non-fluent aphasia. Speech-language pathologists (SLP's) have made adaptations to MIT to address needs of clients whose characteristics differ from the original candidacy criteria. This study examined adaptations made by SLP's and the characteristics of individuals for whom the adaptations were developed. The study involved 23 SLP's with experience using MIT. Participants were asked to describe client characteristics and MIT procedures used for a case where MIT resulted in success and a case where the SLP felt there was a lack of success with this approach. Results indicated that when MIT was successful with clients whose impairments were not a result of a left cerebrovascular accident, adaptations were made. Auditory comprehension was identified as crucial to predicting success with MIT. Although MIT was developed as a treatment for individuals with aphasia, SLP's who completed this survey used MIT with a diverse population, many of whom were individuals with a traumatic brain injury (TBI). These results offer practical insight into strategies for using MIT and may aid in the provision of therapy by both new and veteran clinicians.