Attitudes Toward and Perceived Communicative Competence of Individuals with Aphasia Using Speech-Generating Devices.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of interface display and respondent group on listener attitudes toward and perceived communicative competence of persons with aphasia. The Attitudes Toward Nonspeaking Persons scale and the Communicative Competence Scale was used to measure listener attitudes and communicative competence, respectively. A 2 × 3 mixed factorial design was used. Interface display videos served as the within-subjects variable (i.e., grid and scene displays), and the respondent group served as the between-subjects variable. A total of 113 respondents (i.e., undergraduate lower-division students, undergraduate upper-division students, and family caregivers of individuals with aphasia) watched an individual with aphasia using a grid display in one video and a scene display in another video. The respondents completed the two scales. Significant main effects (p < .05) were found for interface display and respondent group. The use of scene displays had a more favorable impact on competence ratings than the use of grid displays. Family caregiver ratings were significantly (p < .05) more favorable than ratings from other groups. The Communicative Competence Scale was found to be a reliable measure of perceived communicative competence. Scene displays have the potential to enhance the perceived communicative competence of this population.

A Visual Interactive Narrative Intervention (VINI) for aphasia education: Can digital applications administer augmented input to educate stroke survivors with aphasia?

OBJECTIVE: Persons with aphasia (PWA) face additional barriers to proper healthcare due to inadequate patient education by health professionals unequipped to use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). The current study examines a digital application that evokes and sustains health information processing through AAC specifically aimed at increasing comprehension with augmented input (AI). METHODS: A digital application designed to educate PWA about their health condition was compared to a video-recorded doctor providing oral-only education. Sixteen PWA received both education interventions in a crossover manner. Health information processing was assessed through heart rate (HR) and skin conductance levels (SCL), which were collected continually during each administration of education interventions. RESULTS: PWA demonstrated greater cognitive processing of health information via HR and SCL indices during the digital application compared to the typical oral-only education intervention. The oral-only intervention led PWA to disengage with health information. CONCLUSION: By combining visuographic materials and adapted language into a customizable narrative structure, digital applications can utilize AI to educate PWA about basic health information (i.e., diagnosis and prognosis). PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: The current study's AAC requires minimal training and can be used as an aided support in conjunction with other techniques that increase PWA's access to health information.

Stroop interference and AQT cognitive speed may play complementary roles in differentiating dementias with frontal and posterior lesions.

Forty neurotypical adults (ages 65-74) were administered three different assessments, as follows: Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), A Quick Test of Cognitive Speed (AQT), and Stroop Color and Word Test. Correlation coefficients (Pearson r) indicated a significant but moderate association between MoCA scores and AQT dual-dimension processing speed (p < 0.01). AQT color and color-form combination naming correlated significantly with Stroop Color, Word, and Color-Word t-scores, and the observed statistical power was high. Form naming correlated significantly with Stroop Word and Color-Word measures (p < 0.01). The associations between the AQT color, form, and color-form combination and Stroop interference measures were low and non-significant (p > 0.01). Based on evidence of frontal lobe control of inhibition (Stroop) and bilateral temporal-parietal control of dual-dimension processing speed (AQT), results suggest that the AQT dual-dimension processing-speed and Stroop interference tests may complement each other in differentiating dementias associated with frontal and posterior lesions.

Effect of Number of Graphic Symbols, Levels, and Listening Conditions on Symbol Identification and Latency in Persons with Aphasia.

This study investigated the ability of persons with aphasia to complete a series of experimental tasks involving single symbol and subject-verb-object sentence identification on a speech-generating device (SGD) in the presence/absence of competing stimuli. In all, 10 persons with Broca's aphasia and 10 persons in the control group were compared on accuracy and response latency of symbol identification across three listening conditions. Persons with aphasia identified fewer symbols accurately and had longer response latencies than persons in the control group. Number of symbols on the screen and location level had a significant effect on accuracy and latency for both groups. Persons with aphasia perceived tasks to be more difficult than persons in the control group. Results indicate that effective use of SGDs by persons with aphasia may depend on several message organization factors including location and number of symbols per screen.

Perceived family resources based on number of members with ADHD.

OBJECTIVE: This study examines how the number of family members with ADHD affects other family members' perceived resources. METHOD: A total of 40 adolescents diagnosed with ADHD and their mothers, fathers, and adolescent siblings living in the household participated. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze family-level data from a total of 130 participants. RESULTS: Mothers reported more resources when only the target adolescent had ADHD and more nonsupportive factors when more than one member of the family had ADHD. Fathers reported more supportive factors when only one member of the family had ADHD. CONCLUSION: Parents reported greater resources and strengths when only one adolescent family member had ADHD; however, family members had varying viewpoints. The ADHD Family Scale examined issues specific to ADHD, compared with general family stress and resource scales, and may be a useful tool for examining the impact of ADHD on all members of a family.

Student service learning and dementia: bridging classroom and clinical experiences.

University students in speech-language pathology and nursing were involved in a community service learning project with residents of a long-term care facility who had dementia. Nursing students were asked to interact and converse with residents to the best of their ability (control group, n = 28). Speech-language pathology students were instructed to design a personalized, multi-modality "connection kit" for residents based on the tenets of cognitive linguistic stimulation and facilitative styles of interaction, which were included within course content (experimental group, n = 25). Post-project surveys were administered in an attempt to answer the following research question: Do students perceive benefits from participating in a service learning project involving long-term care residents with dementia? Results revealed that the experimental/trained group of speech-language pathology students reported greater academic and clinical benefits compared to the control group of nursing students. Overall implications were that students benefited from a service learning project, especially when explicit instruction was provided.

Production of graphic symbol sentences by individuals with aphasia: efficacy of a computer-based augmentative and alternative communication intervention.

The study employed a single-subject multiple baseline design to examine the ability of 9 individuals with severe Broca's aphasia or global aphasia to produce graphic symbol sentences of varying syntactical complexity using a software program that turns a computer into a speech output communication device. The sentences ranged in complexity from simple two-word phrases to those with morphological inflections, transformations, and relative clauses. Overall, results indicated that individuals with aphasia are able to access, manipulate, and combine graphic symbols to produce phrases and sentences of varying degrees of syntactical complexity. The findings are discussed in terms of the clinical and public policy implications.