iPractice: Piloting the Effectiveness of a Tablet-Based Home Practice Program in Aphasia Treatment
Open accessAbstract
The current study investigated the effectiveness of a home practice program based on the iPad (Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA), implemented after 2 weeks of intensive language therapy, for maintaining and augmenting treatment gains in people with chronic poststroke aphasia. Five of eight original participants completed the 6-month home practice program in which they autonomously practiced retrieving words for objects and actions. Half of these words had been trained and half were untrained during therapy. Practice included tasks such as naming to confrontation, repeating from a video model, and picture/word matching presented on an iPad. All participants maintained advances made on words trained during the intensive treatment and additionally were able to learn new words by practicing daily over a 6-month period. The iPad and other tablet devices have great potential for personalized home practice to maintain and augment traditional aphasia rehabilitation. It appears that motivation to use the technology and adequate training are more important factors than age, aphasia type or severity, or prior experience with computers.
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Most existing studies with VR-based cognitive rehabilitation focused on specific language domains such as word retrieval, sentence building, and language comprehension.
“Most of the existing studies with VR-based cognitive rehabilitation focused on specific language domains [25–28], such as word retrieval [18, 19, 43, 44, 46–48], sentence building [20, 21], and language comprehension [22].”
From Conversational Therapy through Semi-Immersive Virtual Reality Environments for Language Recovery and Psychological Well-Being in Post Stroke Aphasia (2020) · cites this paper as [28]
The Abstract (Method; page unavailable) describes an iPad home-practice program targeting word retrieval, so this paper supports the word-retrieval example. It does not describe a VR-based intervention or establish that most VR rehabilitation studies focus on specific language domains; the sentence cites other works for sentence building and comprehension. (LLM, conf=0.87)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measurediPad-based aphasia rehabilitation treatments have mostly investigated impact only on language functions.
“Additionally, iPad-based aphasia rehabilitation treatments have been investigated but, as for computer therapies, most of the findings investigated the impact only on language functions [25–28].”
From Conversational Therapy through Semi-Immersive Virtual Reality Environments for Language Recovery and Psychological Well-Being in Post Stroke Aphasia (2020) · cites this paper as [28]
Some aphasia research highlights limitations in using technology with this population, while other research demonstrates positive outcomes in improving language skills with technology.
“While some aphasia research highlights the limitations in using technology with this population (17, 18), other research demonstrates positive outcomes in improving language skills with technology (19–22).”
From A Virtual, Randomized, Control Trial of a Digital Therapeutic for Speech, Language, and Cognitive Intervention in Post-stroke Persons With Aphasia (2021) · cites this paper as [22]
Additional evidence from case series and small group studies proves the utility of app-based therapy for adults with aphasia in the chronic stages.
“Additional evidence derived from case series and small group studies also proves the utility of app-based therapy for adults with aphasia in the chronic stages.”
Participants in case series and small group studies have shown improvements across a variety of outcome measures, including naming of trained and untrained items, standardized language and cognitive assessment batteries, and spoken discourse.
“Participants in these studies have shown improvements across a variety of outcome measures, including naming of trained and untrained items, standardized language and cognitive assessment batteries, and spoken discourse [15,17-19].”
Outcome-oriented feedback which visualizes the learning progress is motivating.
“Outcome-oriented feedback which visualizes the learning progress is motivating (Kurland et al., 2014).”
From Improving lexical retrieval with LingoTalk: an app-based, self-administered treatment for clients with aphasia (2023) · cites this paper as Kurland et al., 2014
Words were most commonly selected from vocabulary databases (n = 15), although some studies focused on personally relevant words chosen by the person with aphasia based on their interests or communication needs (n = 9).
“Words were most commonly selected from vocabulary databases ( n = 15) [ 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 40 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 ], although some studies focused on personally relevant words, chosen by the PWA based on their interests or communication needs ( n = 9) [ 12 , 14 , 33 , 38 , 39 , 41 , 42 , 53 , 54 ].”
From Computer- and Smart-Tablet-Based Self-Administered Treatments in Chronic Post-Stroke Aphasia: A Systematic Review (2025) · cites this paper as [36]
Most word production studies targeted nouns, although some included verbs (n = 9), proper nouns (n = 3), or adjectives (n = 1).
“Most studies targeted nouns, although some studies included verbs ( n = 9) [ 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 ], proper nouns ( n = 3) [ 14 , 42 , 43 ], or adjectives ( n = 1) [ 41 ].”
From Computer- and Smart-Tablet-Based Self-Administered Treatments in Chronic Post-Stroke Aphasia: A Systematic Review (2025) · cites this paper as [36]
In a few studies (4/39: 10.26%), an SLP-led therapy preceded the self-administered treatment, with results showing that home practice programs effectively promoted continued language recovery.
“In a few studies (4/39: 10.26%), an SLP-led therapy preceded the self-administered treatment, with results showing that home practice programs effectively promoted continued language recovery [ 36 ].”
From Computer- and Smart-Tablet-Based Self-Administered Treatments in Chronic Post-Stroke Aphasia: A Systematic Review (2025) · cites this paper as [36]
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- Authors
- Wilkins, A., Stokes, P., & Kurland, J.
- Affiliations
- University of Massachusetts Amherst (US)
- Corresponding author
- Kurland, Jacquie
- ORCID
- Kurland, Jacquie
- Venue
- Seminars in Speech and Language
- Publisher
- Georg Thieme Verlag KG
- Published
- 2014-01-21
- Volume
- 35
- Issue
- 01
- Pages
- 051-064
- ISSN
- 0734-0478 (ISSN-L)
- 1098-9056
- PMC
- PMC3931518
- OpenAlex
- W2330107473
- Cited by
- 115
- References
- 21
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 5
- FWCI
- 5.02
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Seminars in Speech and Language (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (R01DC011526)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Assistive Technology in Communication and Mobility
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Rehabilitation › Stroke Rehabilitation and Recovery
- Keywords
- aphasia, post-stroke aphasia, home practice, tablet-based intervention, iPad, maintenance of treatment gains, word retrieval, video modeling, picture-word matching, technology acceptance, motivation, personalized rehabilitation
- MeSH terms
- Stroke Rehabilitation, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aphasia, Female, Humans, Language Therapy, Male, Middle Aged, Treatment Outcome, Stroke, Computers, Handheld, Mobile Applications
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