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Shaping innovative services: Reflecting on current and future practice
112
JCPSLP
Volume 19, Number 2 2017
Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology
The developers offer a free trial and different purchasing
or subscription options ($24.95 per month) for either
individuals or professionals. Each program can also be
purchased individually at a cost of $100 per program.
Item photo quality was average and the same set of
images are used across all activities. Item selection is based
on the American context which means that some items
may not be relevant to an Australian context (e.g., San
Francisco trams, quarter [coin], green pepper, cantaloupe,
candy bar). There were a few instances where more than
one response could have been correct; however, the cues
to assist self correction were not always easy to use.
I was pleased to see that in addition to testimonials
by users (e.g., “ within 8 months I was able to improve
78.7%”); the website also offers research evidence from
four studies conducted since 2012. Unfortunately, only
one has been published in a peer-reviewed journal and
this was also the only study that considered the use of
Parrot Software for people with aphasia. Promising results
were reported in the single-treatment crossover design
study after a 4-week treatment period (2-hour sessions at
4 to 5 sessions per week). A significant improvement in
confrontation naming and oral discourse was reported for
4 of the 6 participants (mean age 52 years) with chronic
aphasia (6 to 85 months post-onset). Improvement was
also reported for untrained targets with maintenance at
4 weeks for some of the participants. The intensity of the
program was acknowledged as one possible reason for
improvement. No information was available on transference
to everyday conversational discourse.
Although an additional three studies are referenced
in support of cognitive rehabilitation, concerns about
author affiliations and limited information about participant
characteristics created challenges in reviewing some
of these studies. One of the studies acknowledged the
challenge with cognitive rehabilitation that gains may not
translate into functional performance in real-world situations
– a very real concern for speech-language pathologists.
Parrot Software adds to the growing number of software
programs available for people with communication
impairments; however, it is this author’s view that “effective
treatment” is likely best achieved if cognitive rehabilitation is
used in conjunction with client-centred and task-specific
therapy.
Parrot software: Effective treatment for aphasia and
brain injury.
www.parrotsoftware.comRonelle Hewetson
“Effective treatment” is a significant statement in our
profession and I will admit that when I was asked to review
Parrot Software: Effective Treatment for Aphasia and Brain
Injury
, it was this statement that caught my attention and is
the lens through which I have considered my appraisal.
Parrot Software, developed by an American speech
pathologist, consists of over 100 computer-based
programs for people with communication and cognition
deficits. Supported by Windows and Mac environments,
the user may type or use speech to respond, for which a
low noise unidirectional microphone is recommended.
Programs cover a range of linguistic, memory and
reasoning tasks, and each program contains a series of
lessons. After completing a lesson, a percent correct and
time required to complete the activity is provided. The same
lesson can be repeated to improve the score. Verbal
reinforcers (e.g., “That is correct, John”) are provided, and
while these are a positive feature, they do at times interfere
with verbal responses provided by the person using the
software.
Resource review