| Individuals with aphasia often suffer from long-term disability which requires extensive rehabilitation (Des Roches, Mitko, & Kiran, 2017). Adults with aphasia tend to engage in fewer social interactions, have a higher rate of depression, and have a lower probability of returning to work (Flamand-Roze et al., 2011). Nonfluent aphasia is characterized by short, effortful, agrammatic productions (Brookshire, 2007). Evidence indicates that a residual visuo-motor network can be activated with audio-visual stimulation and that activation can facilitate fluent speech production (Fridriksson et al., 2009; Venezia et al., 2016). Fridriksson et al. (2012) refer to this phenomenon as speech entrainment. This study was conducted to determine the feasibility of implementing speech entrainment principles to treat individuals with nonfluent aphasia in a rural university clinic setting.
Keywords: nonfluent aphasia, audio-visual stimulation, script therapy |