Traumatic Brain Injury Victims Studied Further at University

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients are receiving extra attention at the University of Arizona's Aphasia Research Project where researchers are studying improved methods of writing and reading therapies for victims.

The university has reportedly received a collective $1.5 million grant from the National Institute on Deafness and other Communications and the National Institutes of Health to assist patients in recovering from communications disorders that involve more than just language. "Aphasia rehabilitation is typically directed toward the improvement of spoken language, but reading and spelling are also affected," according to reports from the Aphasia Research Project and the university....next...

BPS - Neuropsychology shines torch through corridors of the mind

Hit the TV. The way it breaks down offers clues as to how it works. For example, you'll never find that a thump causes the screen to selectively stop displaying women, because there's no mechanism in the machine that exclusively supports the transmission of female images. Cognitive neuropsychologists pursue a similar approach with the human brain, except of course they don't kick people, but rather they study patients with a brain damaged through some other misfortune....next...

Chris DeWald | Aphasia and apraxia: The same, but different

September 22, 2009 by chrisgraham

Trying to decipher and also remembering the difference is close to knowing all the whos in Whoville. Yeah, I bet everyone remembers Cindy Lou Who. I have always thought that the speech therapist told me I had aphasia, but reviewing my notes the other day, I read “apraxia.” Gee Golly, what is the difference? I always used to say it’s a stroke thing. That covers it, huh? A little knowledge does not hurt, so here we go! ..next....

Imaging short- and long-term training success in chronic aphasia

To date, functional imaging studies of treatment-induced recovery from chronic aphasia only assessed short-term treatment effects after intensive language training. In the present study, we show with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), that different brain regions may be involved in immediate versus long-term success of intensive language training in chronic post-stroke aphasia patients.

Results: Eight patients were trained daily for three hours over a period of two weeks in naming of concrete objects....next.....

iPod Touch/iPhone as a Communication Device

iPod Touch/iPhone as a Communication Device

For those PALS (Patients with ALS) who have good hand function, but just have trouble speaking, this may be a solution for you.

If you already own an iPod Touch or iPhone, there are a host of applications that you can purchase to have your device speak out loud things that you type or select on a screen:

Proloquo2go: Fully featured communication software with over 7000 items. Good quality voices. www.proloquo2go.com. $189.99 on iTunes

Talk Assist: Speaks anything typed into the application. Phrases can be saved, and it also keeps a history of typed phrases. Free on iTunes

iSpeech – Text to Speech: Speaks anything typed into the application. Free on iTunes


Speak it! Text to Speech: Turns anything a user types into speech. Good voice synthesizer with very clear speech. $1.99 on iTunes

Talk to Me – Text to Speech: Speaks words as they are typed, and will speak whole phrases. $1.99 on iTunes

Locabulary: Speaks preprogrammed word/phrases. Free on iTunes


Small Talk to Aphasia: Designed for people with aphasia, Small Talk provides a vocabulary of pictures and videos that talk in a natural human voice. Free on iTunes


If you do not have an iPod Touch or iPhone, you may be interested in this option. You should go to a store that sells iPod Touches or iPhones to see how you like the touch screen before you purchase this device.

Other accessories that you may find helpful:








Ewest Super Mini Stereo Speaker








iMainGo 2 Handheld Speaker Case








If you have difficulty touching the screen, there is a stylus that you can purchase to help make selecting items easier called the Pogo Stylus.