Evaluation of an Online Intervention for Improving Stroke Survivors’ Health-Related Quality of Life: A Randomised Controlled Trial

Research, Stroke, Technology, Telepractice

Health researchers from universities, hospitals, and medical research institutes around Australia have evaluated the effectiveness of an online intervention whose purpose is to improve the health-related quality of life of stroke survivors. The instrument, entitled Prevent 2nd Stroke (P2S), is a behavior-change intervention designed to promote medically advisable health-related behaviors among stroke survivors. The goal…

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…

Maintaining Research Fidelity: Remote Training and Monitoring of Clinical Assistants in Aphasia Research

Research, Technology, Telepractice

Researchers from the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Louisiana State University–Baton Rouge have published an article on techniques for maintaining methodological integrity while working with clinical assistants who are remotely trained and monitored in the collection and reporting of data for aphasia research. The goals of the work are to present a structured…

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]…

Current Approaches to the Treatment of Post-Stroke Aphasia

Research, Stroke, Treatment

Two prominent aphasiologists – Julius Fridriksson from University of South Carolina and Argye Elizabeth Hillis from Johns Hopkins University – have published an evaluative review of rehabilitation advances over the last five years for persons with aphasia (PWA). The authors first discuss research focused on traditional behavioral speech-language therapies and studied in large-group, randomized, scientifically…

Cognitive-Linguistic Outcomes from an Intensive Comprehensive Aphasia Program

Rehab and Therapy, Research

Faculty in the Communication Sciences and Disorders Departments at the University of Montana (UMT) and Utah State University have published a study of cognitive and linguistic outcomes of intensive comprehensive aphasia programs (ICAPs) for people with aphasia (PWA) in the chronic stage, implemented by graduate student in Speech-Language Pathology (SLP). Using graduate students lowers ICAP…

Neurologically Based Communication Problems and Language and Speech Therapy in Old Age

Brain, Dementia, Research, Speech and Language

A Research Scientist in Biomedical Engineering in Azerbaijan has published a review of communication issues in old age, including discussions of speech-language interventions for their management. The purpose of the paper is to give a sense of the nature and scope of the various communication problems whose incidence increases with aging processes, and to discuss…