Emoji app - can it help aphasia patients?

Back in the pre-emoji era, one of the tools I used to get my language skills back was an educational toy called GeoSafari. The company still makes more modern versions of this toy.

Fast forward almost 19 years, and here's some new technology to help people with aphasia, a common result of a stroke. Read how Samsung’s new app uses emojis to help people with language disorders communicate:

Created by Samsung Electronics Italia (the company’s Italian subsidiary) and speech therapist Francesca Polini, Wemogee replaces text phrases with emoji combinations and can be used as a messaging app or in face-to-face interactions. It supports English and Italian and will be available for Android on April 28, with an iOS version slated for future release.

Singing for stroke patients - aphasia therapy

I've previously told my story about how singing seemed to help in my recovery from aphasia, an effect of my 1998 stroke.

Now, here's another story of how singing does stroke patients good:

Photo from Scott W. Vincent via Flickr

In a hospital atrium at Mount Sinai Beth Israel this week, a choir gave its first public performance. Wearing light-up necklaces and accompanied by drums and guitar, the performers rang bells and sang such holiday classics as “Silver Bells” and “Joy to the World,” occasionally breaking out in harmony.

Aphasia and brain re-wiring

My own struggle with aphasia and recovery included some serious brain re-wiring, speech therapy and simple time.

Now, new research gives some voice to stroke survivors struggling with language issues. The brain is more resilient, more capable of recovery, than previously thought.


Study finds evidence of post-stroke brain recovery:

Julius Fridriksson, a researcher at the University of South Carolina's  Arnold School of Public Health, said the findings offer hope to patients of “chronic stroke,” characterized by the death of cells in a specific area of the brain. The damage results in long-term or permanent disability.

“For years, we heard little about stroke recovery because it was believed that very little could be done,” Fridriksson said. “But this study shows that the adult brain is quite capable of changing, and we are able to see those images now. This will substantially change the treatment for chronic-stroke patients.”

The study, reported in the Sept. 15 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, involved 26 patients with aphasia, a communication disorder caused by damage to the language regions in the brain’s left hemisphere. Aphasia impairs a person’s ability to process language and formulate speech.

Two great things in one story

I"m a fan of the BBC television show Doctor Who - and a fan of efforts to help people hit by a condition called aphasia, which affects the speech of many stroke patients.

So I had to include a link to a story about a recurring Doctor Who character - the Dalek - and its use in an event to raise money to serve aphasia sufferers:

A Dalek was the menacing attraction as the Ewell Village Fair became the first fund-raising event this year for the chosen charities of the borough's new mayor.

The fair, held at Ewell Castle School, was in aid of Dyscover, the Samaritans and Meru, and Councillor Clive Smitheram, mayor of Epsom & Ewell, has plenty more in the pipeline. ...

Based in Walton-on-the-Hill, Dyscover provides specially designed speech and language programmes for those suffering with a brain condition called aphasia, helping them to adjust on a long-term basis.

A quick quote with more details about aphasia:

Aphasia is an impairment of language which occurs when someone suffers injury to the language areas of the brain. Aphasia can affect language in many ways including its production (ability to speak), and its comprehension (ability to understand others when they speak), as well as other related abilities such as reading and writing. Over 20% of all people who suffer a stroke develop some form of aphasia.

(Photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Strange but true: One stroke sufferer's story

A fascinating telling of a story on NPR the other day, about The Writer Who Couldn't Read:

Engel had suffered a stroke. It had damaged the part of his brain we use when we read, so he couldn't make sense of letters or words. He was suffering from what the French neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene calls "word blindness." His eyes worked. He could see shapes on a page, but they made no sense to him. And because Engel writes detective stories for a living (he authored the Benny Cooperman mystery series, tales of a mild-mannered Toronto private eye), this was an extra-terrible blow. "I thought, well I'm done as a writer. I'm finished."