Abstract
Purpose: Measuring real-world communication participation of individuals waphasia is complicated. Historically, this has been estimated through subjecparticipant or proxy self-report. To address potential inaccuracies, objective msures such as “talk time” have been proposed. Although promising, technolobarriers to collecting and quantifying everyday conversations have been docu-mented (e.g., background noise interference, differentiating recorded speakers, aoperating Bluetooth applications). This study explored the use of a novel larysensor and a Global Positioning System (GPS) tracker with the objective of suring mean talk time per hour and participant locations across three 8-hr dayMethod: Sixteen participants utilized a wearable laryngeal sensor that captuphysiological mechano-acoustic signals wirelessly, without recording speecontent. The sensor differentiates speech from other laryngeal movemeassociated with swallowing and coughing. A GPS tracker was also issuetrack daily locations. Semistructured interviews regarding feasibility and acceability were conducted with participants at the end of the data collection pResults: Across all participants, laryngeal sensor data were collected for a of 38 days and GPS data for a total of 43 days, with a mean collection p8.21 hr (SD = 1.38) per day. Mean talk time per hour was 56.46 s (SD =Participants were tracked at a mean of 2.09 locations daily (range: 1–6). Ppants reported the devices were relatively comfortable to wear and easy to uConclusions: Preliminary findings indicated that talk time of individuals aphasia is limited, though variable. Higher fluency ratings were related to grmean talk time per hour and locations tracked. Results suggest wearable tecogy is feasible to use and acceptable to people with aphasia. In the future, able devices may offer innovative ways to measure communication participation. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.26237531
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 3247-3262 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | American journal of speech-language pathology |
| Volume | 33 |
| Issue number | 6s |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 2024 |
Funding
The work presented in this article was funded National Institute on Deafness and Other CommunicatiDisorders Grant 5R01DC016979 (awarded to L.R.C.The authors recognize the work of John Rogers and Rogers Research Group at Northwestern Universit(including Hyoyoung Jeong, Xinchen Ni, Jaeyoung YoYu Xuan Chin, and Jianyu Goo) for the development the laryngeal sensor and ongoing data processing. Thwish to thank Sarel Van Vuuren, co-principal investiga(with L.R.C.) and software developer for the technoloemployed in the parent clinical trial. They also wish thank Edna Babbitt who was involved in an initial stusing the laryngeal sensor in persons with aphasia Samantha Engel, former project manager, who was crcal to the early success of implementing the wearadevices in this study. They acknowledge Rosalind Hurwfor completing language assessments that allowed us report and interpret findings here. Finally, the authoffer heartfelt gratitude to persons with aphasia and tcare partners who dedicated their time, energy, ainsights to make this work possible.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Otorhinolaryngology
- Developmental and Educational Psychology
- Linguistics and Language
- Speech and Hearing