Development and Testing of a Computerized Language Intervention for Acute Global Aphasia

Abstract

There is a need for effective language therapy interventions appropriate for patients with global aphasia in the acute stage of recovery from stroke. This paper reports a feasibility study of a therapy designed for this population. The therapy program, E-VIC, is presented with the aid of a Macintosh computer. Stimuli and performance are automatically computer-monitored. Results of training with seven globally aphasic patients show that all learned to use the mouse to carry out the task, despite their severe comprehension deficit. Five of the seven patients learned to select correctly from two alternative responses by session 5, and four patients were reliably selecting the correct picture from a response field of at least 3 and as many as 12 items by the time training was terminated (5–18 sessions). A study of the efficacy of E-VIC for recovery of language function is in progress.

Key Words:

• Visual communication
• Acute global aphasia
• Aphasia rehabilitation
• Computer-aided language therapy