Performance in People with Chronic Aphasia Using a Visual Scenes Display

1. Performance in People with Chronic Aphasia Using a Visual Scenes Display Funded in part by: AAC-RERC, NIDRR, USDE DEPENDENT MEASURES PURPOSE Gender Differences in Navigation & Organization Talk • Instances of disability talk • Any utterance Ron makes in an attempt to explain his problem communicating • “Sometimes it is hard to say it.” • Instances of navigation and organization talk • Any utterance Ron makes to himself, or listener concerning device navigation. • “Let’s see here.” • Percentage of inappropriate question and answer exchanges • Develop a personalized Visual Scenes Display (VSD) for a person with chronic aphasia (Ron) • During interaction with unfamiliar partners, document changes: • As Ron became increasingly familiar with the themes • Before and after intervention • Investigate generalization with second theme Theme 1 Fell/Pain Fatigued Fell Broke Arm/No Glasses Gender Differences in Disability Talk PROCEDURES Percentage of Inappropriate Turn-Taking following Questions • Experimental Design: Multiple Baseline Across Themes • Theme Development • Ron and AAC facilitator constructed two themes • Measurement • Bi-weekly data collection • Videotaped • All utterances, gestures, device navigation, and device output transcribed • Instruction • Bi-weekly intervention session • Analyses • Tallied instances of Disability talk • Interobserver agreement = 93.7% • Tallied instances of Navigation and Organization talk • Interobserver agreement = 97.3% • Tallied number of inappropriate turns following a question Theme 1 Miechelle McKelvey, Aimee R. Dietz, Karen Hux, Kristy Weissling, and David Beukelman Navigation & Organization Talk Theme 2 Fell Broke Arm/ No Glasses METHODS Pain Theme 1 • Participants • Person with Aphasia (Ron) • 61-year-old male with chronic aphasia • 8 years post left hemisphere stroke • Lives independently • WAB Aphasia Quotient = 24.2 Fatigued Pain Pain Pain Fatigued • Speech Characteristics • Dysfluencies • Word retrieval difficulties • Stereotypic phrases • Paraphasias • Tends to dominate conversations • Inappropriate turn taking • Perseveration on disability • Communication Partners • -20 adults without communication challenges • Age range 21-72 • Gender 16 females, 4 males DISCUSSION • Generalization to Theme 2 prior to intervention • Disability Talk • Navigation and Organization Talk • Turn-taking following questions • Increased efficiency • Increased reciprocity • Qualitative interaction differences across gender RESULTSDisability Talk Theme 2 Fatigued Fell Broke Arm/ No Glasses Pain Fell/Pain Pain Fatigued http://aac.unl.edu/