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70 Speech Pathology Australia
1 Aphasia Info website: http://www.
This website is designed for patients with aphasia and
their family and friends. It includes information about:
what aphasia is, tips for communicating at home,
support groups; and access to a free newsletter and
aphasia/stroke survivor stories.
The website is easily accessible from an ‘aphasia’
google search. This is a very realistic way of how patients,
family and friends would search for aphasia informa­
tion. The information was basic and easy to understand
and there were many extra links if more information
was needed. The ‘survivor stories’ provide hope for the
readers and might be a great motivation for language
therapy. Helpful tips on how to communicate with a
person with aphasia are also included. Overall, this site
a great first step to finding information on aphasia.
2 Penpals for people with aphasia:
This website is particularly relevant for those patients
exhibiting deficits with reading and/or writing; how­
ever, other sections of the website are an excellent
educational tool for all people affected by aphasia. The
aphasia-friendly site connects people with aphasia from
around the globe through a network entitled ‘aphasia
penpals’. This website is useful and interesting. It
allows the person with aphasia to participate in real-life
activities and by incorporating this resource into
management, the clinician can provide more holistic
speech pathology interventions.
3 Whitworth, A., Perkins, L., Lesser, R. (1997).
Conversation analysis profile for people with
aphasia (CAPPA). London: Whurr.
The Conversation analysis profile for people with aphasia
(CAPPA) is an assessment tool, based on conversational
analysis methodology. It involves a two-part, structured
interview with the person with aphasia and their main
conversational partner, and a recorded 10-minute sample
of conversation in the home environment. The CAPPA
Top 10 Aphasia Resources
and References
Samantha Siyambalapitiya and the third-year speech pathology students,
James Cook University, Queensland
This latest Top 10 is a set of resources and references with a
twist: these references were selected by speech pathology
students, some of whom have not yet seen people with
aphasia on their student placements. The third-year
speech pathology students at James Cook University have
been learning about aphasia this semester and were
recently asked to seek out a resource or reference that they
thought would be helpful in the management of aphasia.
This is the list of some of the resources and references that
they selected, along with their reasons for choosing them.
examines the relationship between what actually occurs
within a conversational exchange, such as opportunities
for interaction, repair strategies and so on, and the
person with aphasia and their communicative partner’s
perception of these events. The CAPPA is a useful tool
to assist clinicians in improving their clients’ functional
communication. It identifies conversational strengths
and weaknesses in real, everyday, interactional com­
municative exchanges, which may be used in the develop­
ment of a functionally relevant and individually tailored
intervention.
4 Cruice, M., Worrall, L., & Hickson, L. (2006).
Perspectives of quality of life by people with
aphasia and their family: Suggestions for daily
living. Topics in Stroke Rehabilitation, 13 (1),
14–24.
This qualitative study sought the perspectives of four
older individuals with stroke and aphasia regarding
what brings them quality in their daily lives. The article
includes transcript excerpts from interviews carried out
with both the people with aphasia as well as their
carer/partner/child. Recurring themes from the people
with aphasia included having positive relationships
with others, being content with living arrangements,
having independence, and participating in meaningful
activities. This article is useful for managing aphasia
because it highlights the idea that the clinician must
gain an understanding of the patient’s priorities and
goals, as well as the patient’s lived experience and
individual perspective on stroke and aphasia, in order
to plan a meaningful intervention program with a view
to obtaining satisfying outcomes.
5 Pulvermuller, F., Neininger, B., Elbert, T., Mohr,
B., Rockstroh, B., Koebbel, P., & Taub, E. (2001).
Constraint-induced therapy of chronic aphasia
after stroke. Stroke, 32: 1621–1626.
Constraint-induced aphasia therapy is based on similar
principles to constraint-induced therapy for the re­
habilitation of movement of the extremities in physio­
therapy. This approach uses the principles of massed
practice (30 hours of training in 2 weeks) and constraint
induction (constraints are used to force the patient to
perform actions they usually avoid). Constraints include
material difficulty, rules and shaping, reinforcement
contingencies and behavioural relevance (focuses on
actions relevant to everyday life). This approach can be
used with patients with chronic aphasia, which is
particularly interesting considering that, in many cases
of aphasia, there may be little further improvement in
the chronic stage.