Semiotically Adaptive Computer-Mediated Speech Therapy with Patients in Aphasia in the Light of Ecolinguistics

Abstract

The article describes the theory behind the design of a computer application for speech therapy of patients in aphasia. The project novelty consists in its data: to build up the training tasks, the authors used speech patterns that were semiotically relevant for the patients and visual supports obtained in experimental work. The research featured target-groups of healthy people whose gender, age, and social profile corresponded with those of patients undergoing neurorehabilitation at the Federal Siberian Research and Clinical Center of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency of Russia. The material included statistical data on the sociological characteristics of patients of the neurorehabilitation center in 2014-2018, as well as 18 questionnaires filled in by relatives of patients who were in rehabilitation from February to March 2019. It also involved scripts of interviews with 40 neurologically healthy native speakers of the Russian language of two gender-socio-professional groups that coincided in the language biography and collective speech profile with the most frequent groups of patients with complex motor aphasia. The data were processed using Sketch Engine corpus manager tools. The main methods of analysis included linguistic experiment, questioning, description, modeling, and design. The article introduces a methodological linguistic basis and a design project for a novel computer application that organizes speech therapy for patients with aphasia at home. The research was based on the ecolinguistic principle of relevance, which demonstrated good practical application prospects.

Keywords

• semiotic adaptiveness
• ecolinguistics
• speech therapy
• language biography
• aphasia
• computer application
• emplacement principle
• collective speech profile