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Reducing the Cognitive/Linguistic Load of Persons with Aphasia and Traumatic Brain Injury Who Rely on AAC

Reducing the Cognitive/Linguistic Load of Persons with Aphasia and Traumatic Brain Injury Who Rely on AAC. David Beukelman University of Nebraska, Lincoln With support from: AAC-RERC/NIDRR/USDE Technology Transfer Partner Dynavox. AAC: Augmentative and Alternative Communication.

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Reducing the Cognitive/Linguistic Load of Persons with Aphasia and Traumatic Brain Injury Who Rely on AAC

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  1. Reducing the Cognitive/Linguistic Load of Persons with Aphasia and Traumatic Brain Injury Who Rely on AAC David Beukelman University of Nebraska, Lincoln With support from: AAC-RERC/NIDRR/USDE Technology Transfer Partner Dynavox

  2. AAC: Augmentative and Alternative Communication • A range of strategies to support communication for those with unmet communication needs

  3. Aphasia • Language limitation due to damage language center in the left (usually) hemisphere • Range of symptoms • Range of severity • Range of recovery • ??% do not achieve full recovery • ??% with minimal functional verbal expression

  4. Traumatic Brain Injury • Range of communication limitations • Motor speech • Cognitive/Linguistic • Combination • Pattern of communication limitations changing as medical interventions improve. • More combined communication limitations

  5. Intervention Strategies • Restoration--restore verbal expression • Compensation--provide alternatives to natural speech • Combined--Integrate AAC and natural speech

  6. Cognitive/Linguistic Limitations Related to AAC • Representation of Meaning • Navigation through the AAC Interface • Formulating Messages • Organizing Content

  7. Aphasia: AAC Acceptance & Use • Long history of low tech AAC use to support residual verbal expression • Communication books and boards • Drawing • Handwriting • Photography • Remnant books

  8. Aphasia: AAC Acceptance & Use • High tech AAC use for specific tasks • Answering phone • Calling for help • Ordering in restaurants and stores • Giving speeches • Saying prayers • Engaging in scripted conversations

  9. Rationale for Using Visual Scene Displays (Aphasia) • Make use of preserved skills of people with chronic aphasia • Visual-spatial processing • Retention of information about life experiences (episodic information) • Retention of general world knowledge

  10. Strategy: To incorporate Contextually Relevant Visual Scenes • Provide a way to represent meaning • Support navigation within an AAC system • Serve as a shared platform for co-constructing messages with listener(s) • Establish a shared communication space • Allow for integration with other types of communication supports

  11. Evaluating Images for Contextual Richness of a Visual Scene Four criteria: • Environmental context (setting, people, objects, and activities) • Interaction with people or the environment • Personal relevancy • Clarity regarding elements key to the implied relationships

  12. Environment: High Interaction: High Personal relevance: High Clarity: High Comment: Satisfies all the elements for being a good contextually-rich picture to support a story

  13. Environment: Absent Interaction: Absent Personal relevance: High Clarity: High Comment: Typical portrait that does not convey any contextual or interaction information

  14. Environment: Absent Interaction: Absent Personal relevance: Absent Clarity: High Comment: Only serves to identify an object; typical of pictures available in stimulus sets

  15. Environment: Interaction: Personal relevance: Clarity:

  16. Environment: Interaction: Personal relevance: Clarity:

  17. Environment • Interaction • Personal relevance • Clarify • Good scene? • 1a Yes • No

  18. Environment • Interaction • Personal relevance • Clarify • Good scene? • 2a Yes • No

  19. Low Tech Visual Scenes with Text Support http:aac.unl.edu

  20. Visual Scene Display (VSD) for Aphasia and TBI

  21. VSD Navigational Strategies (High Tech) Themes • Organizational strategy for • navigation Color & CONTRAST • Learning • Memory • Pattern recognition • Organization “Link Deeper” • Continue on same topic

  22. VSD

  23. Three Levels Content Management Strategies • 1. People who rely on AAC • 2. AAC Facilitator/General Clinician • 3. AAC Specialists

  24. VSD with Content Management Functions For Facilitators

  25. VSD Features • Drag and drop images from • Enter messages from onscreen keyboard • Hide and reveal buttons • Select from a range of templates • Navigate themes • Navigate deeper into themes • Enter content with requiring detailed programming knowledge

  26. VSD Example

  27. VSD Example

  28. VSD Example

  29. Research Strategy Case Reports and Small N Studies of Clinical Interventions with Current Technology Experimental Studies Preference Message representation Navigation of Interface Usability Evaluations of Technology Revisions

  30. Aphasia: Participant 1 Social Closeness Basic Needs New Information

  31. Participant 1 25 themes 105 pages 377 messages 185 pictures

  32. Aphasia: Participant 2 New Information Social Closeness

  33. Message Representation: Preference • N = 8 • Miechelle McKelvey Dissertation Results Summary: Preference • Personally Relevant Pictures: 85% • Non-personally Relevant Pictures: 13% • Iconic Symbols: 3%

  34. Message Representation: Accuracy • N = 8 • Miechelle McKelvey Dissertation Summary Results: Accuracy Personally Relevant Pictures: 98% • Non-personally Relevant Pictures: 55% • Iconic Symbols: 34%

  35. Learning New Themes • Strategy: • Series of Small N Studies • Completed during field tests • Conclusion: • Instruction/practice on FIRST THEME varied • Minimal instruction/practice on Subsequent Themes after the FIRST THEME was mastered.

  36. Traumatic Brain Injury with Complex Communication Needs (N = 30) • Summary from Fager et al. Survey (2006) • 32% used low-tech AAC • Regained speech • Lack of Facilitator support • Lack of funding for high-tech AAC • 68% used high-tech AAC • Of these, 87% used letter by letter spelling without message retrieval • Minimal use of message retrieval strategies • Remainder used iconic symbols-- • TBI before learning to spell • Severe cognitive/language issues

  37. VSD with Onscreen Keyboard Option VSD to support episodic message retrieval to support multiple themes to support narrative organization to supplement residual speech Onscreen keyboard with speech synthesis output to support spelled messages

  38. VSD & Onscreen Keyboard with Speech Synthesis

  39. VSD for Severe Cognitive Conditions • Subset of People with TBI are unable to communicate through speech and experience such severe cognitive limitations that spelling is not an option for some them. • VSD appears to be an option provided that visual issues are managed with large pictures and print. • Field Trials Ongoing

  40. Acknowledgements • AAC-RERC • Janice Light & Jeff Higginbotham • University of Nebraska • Karen Hux, Aimee Dietz, Miechelle McKelvey, Kristy Weissling, Sarah Wallace • Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital • Susan Fager

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