Effectiveness Assessment of a Client-Server-Model Based Self-Practice Therapy for Naming Aphasia (Preprint)

Abstract

Naming problem is often seen in patients with aphasia (PWA). For whom, the practice is an important issue during therapy. It is well known that intensive as well as errorless practice can benefit the patients with naming problem. However, it is not usually possible to meet the prescribed face-to-face treatments in clinics due to the shortage of speech therapist.

The purpose of this study is firstly to develop a client-server model based self-practice strategy for the treatment of naming problem, and then to assess the learning effectiveness during treatment.

A total of 13 aphasic patients with naming problem (aged 32–73 years) were recruited in this study with written informed consent. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital. All the participants were diagnosed as having the Broca’s aphasia without impaired auditory comprehension or progressive brain disease. A client server model was implemented in a mobile device based system to provide the picture/video-naming practice using a semantic cueing hierarchy for Mandarin Chinese. Learning performance were evaluated at the baseline test, one-week post-intervention (immediate results), and 12 weeks later (follow-up). The participants were asked to perform this self-practice system for three months, and to receive the routine face-to-face therapy once a week as well.

The naming abilities presented as novel naming score of these aphasia participants assessed in baseline test, immediate test, and follow up test were 37.96±22.58, 62.55±22.66, and 53.69±23.34, respectively. The results of Wilcoxon signed ranks test found that the scores in immediate test and baseline test, as well as the follow up test (p=0.001) and the baseline test (p=0.008) were significantly different. The participants' satisfaction with the system was almost over 90%.

The proposed system is demonstrated to effectively enhance the naming ability and long-term retention for PWA with additional self-practice. A client server model based naming therapy is easy to access and adaptable for personalized treatment protocol. Besides, the cost and time spent for outpatients during face-to-face therapy may be reduced. Self-assessment and naming library update can also be remotely provided. It is suggested that a mobile device-based self-practice combined with regular hospital-based therapy once a week will significantly improve the naming ability of PWA.