Mack Receives Grant to Study Effects of Aphasia Identification Cards
Content
Assistant Professor of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences Jennifer Mack has received a two-year, $404,000 award from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to study the potential benefits of using aphasia identification (ID) cards to help people with aphasia communicate with unfamiliar partners.
More than 2 million people in the U.S. are estimated to be living with aphasia, a language impairment affecting the production and/or comprehension of spoken and written language, usually as a result of a left hemisphere stroke. People with aphasia often experience challenges conveying their thoughts to unfamiliar communication partners, which is critical for living independently and building new social connections.
Mack’s study will investigate whether service workers comprehend speakers with aphasia more accurately when they have first read an aphasia ID card. Aphasia ID cards contain written self-advocacy statements that disclose the speaker’s aphasia, define aphasia, and provide guidance on how to communicate successfully.
“Our hypothesis is that using these ID cards will help people with aphasia convey their thoughts, particularly among people who they don’t typically interact with, and thereby strengthen their independence and social connections,” explains Mack.
Her study has two long-term objectives: to improve unfamiliar communication partners’ comprehension of people with aphasia, and to support people with aphasia in advocating for their communication needs. By focusing on service workers, who interact directly with customers to complete essential tasks such as purchasing food and picking up medication, Mack aims to show that the use of aphasia ID cards can facilitate key language processes that improve their comprehension of people with aphasia.
For the study, Mack will enroll 160 service workers who vary with respect to age, gender, race/ethnicity, and occupation in a randomized controlled trial. Half of the service workers will view an aphasia ID card for a speaker with aphasia, and half will not. Then, all service workers will complete tasks measuring their attitudes, language processing, and comprehension of service requests (i.e., requests for goods, services, or information) produced by speakers with aphasia. Eye-tracking will be used to measure key language processes that take place while service workers listen to the service requests.
Specifically, Mack will investigate how viewing an aphasia ID card affects service workers’ attitudes, language processing, and comprehension when people with aphasia produce long pauses and paraphasias (word-retrieval errors). By rigorously investigating the effects of aphasia ID cards on service workers’ attitudes, language processing, and comprehension, this project will contribute to the long-term goals of improving unfamiliar communication partners’ comprehension and helping people with aphasia self-advocate effectively.