Adaptive language learning software can be “extremely beneficial” in supporting stroke survivors living with aphasia, a new study has revealed.
Aphasia affects around one in three people after stroke and can have profound impact on speech and language capability.
More than 350,000 people in the UK are living with aphasia, treatment for which is usually centred around speech and language therapy – but the strain on provision for such services, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, means many are not gaining the vital support they need.
But a new study from Baycrest has revealed the benefits of a software-based approach – making use of the growing numbers of apps and digital approaches on the market – rather than therapy taking place in the traditional clinical setting, and stresses the benefits of remote rehab to meet demand.
“These results are highly encouraging and suggest that the use of adaptive language-learning software should be considered for widespread adoption in treating aphasia,” says Dr Jed Meltzer, Baycrest’s Canada research chair in interventional cognitive neuroscience, senior scientist at Baycrest’s Rotman Research Institute and senior author of the study.
“Our research suggests that stroke survivors and others living with aphasia can improve their language skills using apps over several months, and can potentially relearn hundreds of words if they practice enough,” says Dr. Meltzer.
“Adaptive language-learning software using spaced repetition appears to be extremely helpful in scaling treatment for stroke survivors and other individuals living with aphasia, ultimately helping to improve their quality of life.”
The research looked at 28 subjects who were recruited from aphasia support programmes and aphasia-related groups on social media. Each participant began by completing an evaluation with a researcher, where they were shown pictures and asked to name them – for example, ‘umbrella’ or ‘squirrel’.
Next, participants used an online programme to practice identifying images they could not name during their initial evaluation. Each picture included two hints and the answer. Participants were asked to use this programme 30 minutes a day for two weeks.
As part of the study, researchers tested three different strategies to schedule the repetition of words in the software. One of these was an adaptive ‘spaced repetition’ strategy, which presents correctly named items less frequently, thus focusing more on the items that users do not remember correctly.
After finishing their training, participants completed two additional evaluations. The first was conducted the week following the training, and the second, four weeks later, to test how well they had retained their skills.
The researchers found that participants successfully relearned the majority of the trained items using the software. The adaptive spaced repetition strategy performed the best, meaning there was no downside to dropping items from the practice list once they had been mastered.
In a follow-up study, the researchers will evaluate the benefit of app-based practice for general skills, such as short-term memory and attention, in addition to training on relearning specific words, to maximise the degree of recovery possible using adaptive software.
