ABSTRACT

The application of errorless (EL) learning to acquired communication disorders has followed from, and been influenced by, the many amnesia treatment studies using this principle. The amnesia treatment studies that motivated the early naming treatment studies had postulated that the EL learning benefit was supported by implicit memory processes. The predominance of naming therapy studies utilizing EL methods was noted in the first review of EL learning for aphasia. In practical terms, the EL learning debate within the field of acquired communication disorders has generated and expanded the array of treatment methods from which clinicians may choose in their clinical management of disorders like aphasia, dysgraphia and Apraxia of speech (AOS). AOS is important given it may provide a more useful context within which to test EL learning. Consideration of AOS and EL learning also highlights the significance for learning which draws on implicit rather than explicit cognitive processing.