MossRehab’s Aphasia Center, in collaboration with the MossRehab Research Institute (MRRI) and Psycholinguistic Technologies, Inc., has developed computer-based technology tools that facilitate aphasia recovery even years after the onset of aphasia. These tools, which include SentenceShaper™ and MossTalk Words®, make continued improvement not only feasible, but also efficient and cost-effective.

Facilitating Spoken Communication

SentenceShaper, developed at MossRehab and Unisys Corporation by MIT-trained linguist and software developer Marcia Linebarger, PhD, facilitates spoken communication for patients with moderate to severe non-fluent Broca’s and anomic aphasia. The program minimizes demand on memory and rapid recall and helps aphasic individuals speak in sentences, include more information in what they say, choose appropriate words and use correct grammar.

With SentenceShaper, a patient uses a microphone to record individual spoken phrases, which are then represented on a computer screen by different colored shapes. To form spoken sentences, the patient performs additional functions at his or her own pace, such as playing back phrases by clicking on shapes, deleting phrases by deleting shapes, correcting phrases and rearranging shape order.

A number of research studies have found that regular use of SentenceShaper may lead to improvements in spontaneous speech. Now MossRehab is collaborating with Dr. Linebarger and her company, Psycholinguistic Technologies, Inc., in an effort to expand the use of SentenceShaper by developing and investigating the efficacy of a portable handheld device that enables a patient to create spoken messages on a desktop computer through SentenceShaper, download the messages onto the portable device and play them back from the device at will. According to Myrna Schwartz, PhD, Research Director of the MossRehab Aphasia Center and Associate Director of MRRI, the program brings actual language competence to the fore, because users build spoken messages at their own speed prior to spoken interactions.

Efficient and cost-effective continued learning

MossTalk Words is a computer-based, word-level treatment program that builds patient competency in understanding and saying words and also provides auditory or visual hints to prompt word retrieval. Customizable according to the needs of the patient, MossTalk Words allows for repeated independent practice and continued learning with minimal clinician guidance.

Research on MossTalk Words, carried out at four independent research institutions, has demonstrated that it is beneficial to patients with moderate to severe word retrieval deficits including some patients with Primary Progressive Aphasia.

MossRehab recently received funding to equip MossTalk Words with voice recognition, allowing patients to speak answers and receive automated feedback as they participate in therapy. Speech recognition is expected to be particularly useful for individuals who can work independently, since such patients can practice at their own pace and self correct their answers or pronunciation until the computer understands.

SentenceShaper and MossTalk Words easily adapt to different patients and evolving patient proficiencies, can be used by patients at home or under decreased therapist supervision, and are applicable to varied institutional settings for extended, structured, independent therapy.

For more information about SentenceShaper and MossTalk Words, go to www.sentenceshaper.com or www.mosstalk.com.