An Exploratory Investigation of e-REST: Teletherapy for Chronically Agrammatic Speakers

Authors

  • Marina B. Ruiter Radboud University (Nijmegen, The Netherlands
  • Toni C.M. Rietveld Radboud University
  • Vera Hoskam
  • Marijn M.A. van Beers

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/ijt.2016.6191

Abstract

Delivering aphasia therapy via telecommunication may provide a means to deliver intensive therapy in a cost-effective way. Teletherapy, remotely-administered (language) treatment, may support the repetitive drill practices that people with chronic aphasia need to perform when learning to compensate for their lasting language difficulties. The use of teletherapy may allow speech and language pathologists (SLPs) to focus in-person sessions more strongly on the generalisation of therapy effects to daily life. This single subject study is an investigation whether a teletherapy application called e-REST meets the criteria of accessibility, user-friendliness, as well as effectiveness. e-REST, the teletherapy version of the Dutch and adapted Reduced Syntax Therapy, teaches chronically aphasic speakers of Dutch who experience difficulties in sentence production to convey their messages in a kind of telegraphic style. The results obtained suggest that it is reasonable to conduct a larger study into the user-friendliness, accessibility, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of e-REST.   

  

References

Barthel, G., Meinzer, M., Djundja, D., & Rockstroh, B. (2008). Intensive language therapy in chronic aphasia: Which aspects contribute most? Aphasiology, 22(4), 408–421.

Basso, A., & Macis, M. (2011). Therapy efficacy in chronic aphasia. Behavioural Neurology, 24(4), 317–325.

Beijer, L., & Rietveld, T. (2011). Potentials of Telehealth Devices for Speech Therapy in Parkinson’s Disease. In J. Dushanova (Ed.), Diagnostics and Rehabilitation of Parkinson’s Disease (pp. 379–402). ISBN: 978-953-307-791-8, InTech, DOI: 10.5772/17865. Available from: http://www.intechopen.com/books/diagnostics-and-rehabilitation-of-parkinson-s-disease/potentials-of-telehealth-devices-for-speech-therapy-in-parkinson-s-disease.

Beijer, L., & Rietveld, T. (2015). Asynchronous telemedicine applications in rehabilitation of acquired speech-language disorders in neurologic patients. Smart Homecare Technology and TeleHealth, 3, 39–48.

Boxum, E., van der Scheer, F., & Zwaga, M. (2013). ASTA: Analyse voor Spontane Taal bij Afasie [ASTA: Analysis of the spontaneous speech produced by people with aphasia]. Vereniging voor Klinische Linguistiek.

Brady, M. C., Kelly, H., Godwin, J., & Enderby, P. (2012). Speech and language therapy for aphasia following stroke. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 5(5), CD000425.

Brindley, P., Copeland, M., Demain, C., & Martyn, P. (1989). A comparison of the speech of ten chronic Broca’s aphasics following intensive and non-intensive periods of therapy. Aphasiology, 3(8), 695–707.

Brookshire, R., & Nicholas, L. (1994). Test-retest stability of measures of connected speech in aphasia. Clinical Aphasiology, 22, 119–133.

Cherney, L. R., & van Vuuren, S. (2012). Telerehabilitation, virtual therapists, and acquired neurologic speech and language disorders. Seminars in Speech and Language, 33(3), 243–257.

Code, C. (2012). Apportioning time for aphasia rehabilitation. Aphasiology, 26(5), 729–735.

Code, C., & Petheram, B. (2011). Delivering for aphasia. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 13(1), 3–10.

Code, C., Torney, A., Gildea-Howardine, E., & Willmes, K. (2010). Outcome of a one-month therapy intensive for chronic aphasia: variable individual responses. Seminars in Speech and Language, 31(1), 21–33.

Currell, R., Urquhart, C., Wainwright, P., & Lewis, R. (2000). Telemedicine versus face to face patient care: effects on professional practice and health care outcomes. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (2), CD002098.

Graetz, P., de Bleser, R., & Willmes, K. (1992). De Akense Afasietest [The Aachen Aphasia Test]. Lisse: Swets & Zeitlinger.

Hallowell, B., & Chapey, R. (2008). Introduction to language intervention strategies in adult aphasia. In R. Chapey (Ed.), Language Intervention strategies in aphasia and related neurogenic communication disorders (5th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Holm, S. (1979). A simple sequentially rejective multiple test procedure. Scandinavian Journal of Statistics, 6, 65–70.

Kolk, H. (2006). How language adapts to the brain: An analysis of agrammatic aphasia. In L. Progovac, K. Paesani, E. Casielles, & E. Barton (Eds.), The syntax of nonsententials: Multi-disciplinary perspectives (pp. 229–258). Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

McNeil, M. R., & Pratt, S. R. (2001). Defining aphasia: Some theoretical and clinical implications of operating from a formal definition. Aphasiology, 15(10-11), 901–911.

Ministerie van Volksgezondheid, Welzijn en Sport. (2012). De zorg: Hoeveel extra is het ons waard? [Health care: How much extra are we prepared to pay?]. Retrieved from www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/betaalbaarheid-van-de-zorg/documenten-en-publicaties/rapporten/2012/06/12/rapport-de-zorg-hoeveel-extra-is-het-ons-waard.html.

Mortley, J., Wade, J., & Enderby, P. (2004). Superhighway to promoting a client-therapist partnership? Using the internet to deliver word-retrieval computer therapy, monitored remotely with minimal speech and language therapy input. Aphasiology, 18(3), 193–211.

Munzel, U. (1999). Nonparametric methods for paired samples. Statica Neerlandica, 53(3), 277-286.

Parmanto, B., & Saptono, A. (2009). Telerehabilitation: State-of-the-art from an informatics perspective. International Journal of Telerehabilitation, 1(1), 73–83.

Penning de Vries, B. W. F., Bodnar, S. E., Cucchiarini, C., Strik, H., & Van Hout, R. W. N. M. (2013). Spoken grammar practice in an ASR-based CALL system. In Proceedings of SLaTE 2013 (pp. 60–65). Grenoble, France.

Progovac, L. (2006). The syntax of nonsententials: Small clauses and phrases at the root. In L. Progovac, K. Paesani, E. Casielles, & E. Barton (Eds.), The Syntax of Nonsententials: Multidisciplinary perspectives (pp. 33–71). Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Rogante, M., Grigioni, M., Cordella, D., & Giacomozzi, C. (2010). Ten years of telerehabilitation: A literature overview of technologies and clinical applications. NeuroRehabilitation, 27(4), 287–304.

Ruiter, M. (2008). Speaking in ellipses: The effect of a compensatory style of speech on functional communication in chronic agrammatism. PhD-thesis, Radboud Univserstiy, Nijmegen.

Ruiter, M. B., Kolk, H. H. J., & Rietveld, T. C. M. (2010). Speaking in ellipses: the effect of a compensatory style of speech on functional communication in chronic agrammatism. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 20(3), 423–458.

Ruiter, M. B., Kolk, H. H. J., Rietveld, T. C. M., & Feddema, I. (2013). Combining possibly reciprocally dependent linguistic parameters in the quantitative assessment of aphasic speakers’ grammatical output. Aphasiology, 27(3), 293–308.

Sanders, E., Ruiter, M., Beijer, L., & Strik, H. (2002). Automatic recognition of Dutch dysarthric speech: A pilot study. Proceedings of the International Conference on Spoken Language Processing (pp. 661-664), 16–21 September, 2002, Denver, CO, USA.

Schlenck, C., Schlenck, K.J., & Springer, L. (1995). Die Behandlung des schweren Agrammatismus - Reduzierte-Syntax-Therapie (REST) [Treatment of severe agrammatism - Reduced Syntax Therapy (REST)]. Stuttgart: Thieme.

Strik, H. (2012). ASR-based systems for language learning and therapy. In Proceedings of IS-ADEPT (International Symposium on Automatic Detection of Errors in Pronunciation Training) 2012 (pp. 9–14). Stockholm: Sweden: KTH.

Theodoros, D. (2012). A new era in speech-language pathology practice: innovation and diversification. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 14(3), 189–199.

Wilcox, R. (2012). Modern Statistics for the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Boca Raton: Taylor & Francis Group.

Yorkston, K. M., & Beukelman, D. R. (1980). An analysis of connected speech samples of aphasic and normal speakers. The Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 45(1), 27–36.

Downloads

Published

2016-07-01

How to Cite

Ruiter, M. B., Rietveld, T. C., Hoskam, V., & van Beers, M. M. (2016). An Exploratory Investigation of e-REST: Teletherapy for Chronically Agrammatic Speakers. International Journal of Telerehabilitation, 8(1), 21–28. https://doi.org/10.5195/ijt.2016.6191

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 1: Spring 2016

Section

Intervention

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
  2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
  3. The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
    1. Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
    with the understanding that the above condition can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
  4. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  5. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a prepublication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
  6. Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
  7. The Author represents and warrants that:
    1. the Work is the Author’s original work;
    2. the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
    3. the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
    4. the Work has not previously been published;
    5. the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
    6. the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
  8. The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.

Revised 7/16/2018. Revision Description: Removed outdated link.