Improving Multimodal Communication Treatment for People with Aphasia

Project Overview

Multimodal Communication Treatment (MCT, Purdy & Wallace, 2015) is an effective treatment to train people with a neurogenic communication disorder (aphasia) to use various communication methods (e.g., gestures, drawing) to resolve their communication breakdown. However, previous effects of MCT were only evaluated in a face-to-face format and showed limited generalization effects to daily conversations. This project will implement MCT in a telepractice format. Telepractice is an excellent method for underserved populations with limited resources and barriers to seeking health care services (e.g., limited transportation), especially for services that require frequent visits (e.g., 2 or 3 times per week in speech therapy). In addition, this project will include storytelling and group interactions so that participants can practice treatment strategies in a communication environment that is similar to daily conversations. Participants with aphasia will receive two one-hour individual and one group therapy sessions per week for 10 weeks. The ratios of the use of various communication methods will be compared between the pre- and post-test to demonstrate the effectiveness of the modified MCT in telepractice.