People with Aphasia Share Their Views on Self-Management and the Role of Technology to Support Self-Management of Aphasia

Communication Impairments, Speech and Language, Technology

Investigators at the Aphasia Research Centre, University of Queensland – together with colleagues elsewhere Australia – have reported research on how persons with aphasia (PWA) regard self-management, including how they view and employ technologies that facilitate self-management. The goals of this investigation were to: (1) refine our understanding of what, in actual practice, self-management means…

COVID-19 and Aphasia

Analysis, Communication Impairments, Research

A communication specialist from Hong Kong University’s Academic Unit of Human Communication, Development, and Information Sciences has published an article that discusses what clinicians have learned about relationships between the COVID-19 virus and aphasia. Because COVID-19 is a novel virus, highly contagious, and – in long covid – observed to compromise disparate organs and functional…

The Application of Lexical Retrieval Training in Tablet-Based Speech-Language Intervention

AAC, Communication Impairments, Research, Technology

Researchers from MGH’s Institute for Health Professions and Harvard’s Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology published a study comparing behaviors and outcomes in persons with chronic aphasia who practiced lexical retrieval using tablet-based therapy materials. During practice, half the users were discouraged from using the app’s ‘cue button’ – which spoke the answer…

A Systematic Review of Maintenance Following Intensive Therapy Programs in Chronic Post-stroke Aphasia: Importance of Individual Response Analysis

Communication Impairments, Rehab and Therapy, Research

Researchers working at Universities in Australia and Germany have published a systematic review of outcome improvements and maintenance patterns in persons with chronic aphasia following completion of intensive aphasia therapy programs. The primary goals of review were to: [1] investigate individual response patterns and rates across six common outcome measures upon program completion; and [2]…

Analysis of Real-World Language Use in a Person With Wernicke’s Aphasia

Analysis, Communication Impairments, Research

Speech-language pathologists in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at the University of Connecticut report results of a pilot study using the Language Environment Analysis technology (LENA) to capture and analyze real-world samples of language use from a person with aphasia (PWA) before and after intensive language therapy. The authors goals were: [1]…

The Effectiveness of Adding Speech-Language Telerehabilitation to Usual Care

Communication Impairments, Research, Stroke, Telepractice

Rehabilitation specialists from Norway and Scotland present results from a single-blinded randomized controlled pilot study that compares the effectiveness – for persons with aphasia (PWA) – of speech-language telerehabilitation additive to usual care for following stroke, vs. usual care alone. It reports subject recruitment and drop-out numbers, plus improvements in impairment assessment scores and functional…

Reviewing Changes to Approaches to Aphasia Diagnosis and Long-Term Management

Communication Impairments, Rehab and Therapy, Research

An aphasia researcher from Chapman University’s Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders, together with a colleague from Johns Hopkins University’s Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, have published an article that reviews changes in approaches to diagnosing aphasia over the past several decades, as well as the evolution which has taken place during that time…