We have chosen this paper as the focus for our online #ReSNetSLT Journal Club this month, to link with the national Stroke Association fundraising campaign “Make May Purple” :
Promoting linguistic complexity, greater message length and ease of engagement in email writing in people with aphasia: initial evidence from a study utilizing assistive writing software: Use of assistive writing software for people with aphasia June 2016 International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders 52(1) DOI: 10.1111/1460-6984.12261
by Lindsey Thiel, Karen Sage & Paul Conroy.
We are delighted to welcome two of the paper authors to join Team ReSNetSLT for our discussions – Paul Conroy and Lindsey Thiel.
OUR SPECIAL NEW FEATURE !
Click the arrow in the player to listen to Paul and Lindsey talking about their study.
The key driver for this study is the premise that “improving email writing in people with aphasia could enhance their ability to communicate, promote interaction and reduce isolation. Spelling therapies have been effective in improving single-word writing. However, there has been limited evidence on how to achieve changes to everyday writing tasks such as email writing in people with aphasia.”
At this stage in the current global pandemic, we are all aware that social distancing is likely to be a long-term strategy; most especially to protect those who already have pre-existing health conditions.
In addition to the rise in popularity of social chatting platforms, many of us have also significantly increased our use of text-based messaging and emails to keep us connected with family and friends.
So there is an added imperative to focus on supporting people with aphasia (PWA) to also improve their skills and confidence in using text-based communication strategies. This makes it highly timely to revisit this paper and to reflect on our own intervention plans if we’re working in this field.
The study design for this research was a within-participants case series study. It aimed to investigate the effects of using assistive writing software to improve email writing in participants with dysgraphia related to aphasia.
There was some previous indicative evidence that assistive writing software use may lead to qualitative and quantitative improvements to spontaneous writing, but the potential use of assistive writing technologies had not yet been documented.
This study included eight participants (PWA) who worked on “a hierarchy of writing tasks of increasing complexity within broad topic areas that incorporate the spheres of writing need of the participants: writing for domestic needs, writing for social needs and writing for business/administrative needs”.
The intervention also included “training and practice in basic computer and email skills to encourage increased independence”.
This study generated some initial evidence that assistive writing technologies can support people with aphasia (PWA) in email writing, as measured by factors including spelling accuracy and word length. Participants also achieved greater independence in email use, and self-reported increased perception of their own writing skills.
Questions to structure our discussions:
We look forward to hearing everyone sharing insights and advice from your own experience. And as usual, we are certain that some of you will generously share information and links about other related research publications that will be included in the full transcript of the discussions available after the chat.
- What is your own experience of working with PWA on independent written communication skills, especially using digital technologies?
- How have you/would you measure outcomes in their written communication skills?
- How have you/would you evaluate the impact on their functional skills and independence levels?
- How might you present the findings of this study to families of PWA you are working with?