Shared social identity and perceived social support among stroke groups during the COVID-19 pandemic: Relationship with psychosocial health.

Community-based peer support groups for stroke survivors are common in the United Kingdom and aim to support rehabilitation. This study of 260 stroke survivors across 118 groups nationally used an online survey format, completed on average 3 months into the pandemic. Analysis of both quantitative and open-ended responses provided insights into how stroke group members maintained contact during the COVID-19 pandemic and how the group processes of shared social identity and perceived social support related to psychosocial outcomes (self-esteem, well-being and loneliness).

Reliability and validity of the Stroke and Aphasia Quality of Life Scale-39 (SAQOL-39) for a Serbian population.

: Aphasia has a negative impact on a person's quality of life (QOL). The Stroke Aphasia Quality of Life-39 scale (SAQOL-39) is a widely-used measure of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) developed for people with aphasia that has been translated into several languages. Its psychometric properties have been examined not only in English, but also in other languages.

The prehistory of speech and language is revealed in brain damage.

The aim of this paper is to develop further the idea that symptoms that emerge in speech and language processing following brain damage can make a contribution to discussions of the early evolution of language. These diverse impairments are called aphasia, and this paper proposes that the recovery of a non-fluent aphasia syndrome following stroke could provide insights into the course of the pre-history of human language evolution. The observable symptoms emerge during recovery, crucially enabled by (dis)inhibition in parallel with a range of impairments in action processing (apraxias), including apraxia of speech.

Singing for people with aphasia (SPA): results of a pilot feasibility randomised controlled trial of a group singing intervention investigating acceptability and feasibility.

Objectives: Pilot feasibility randomised controlled trial (RCT) for the singing groups for people with aphasia (SPA) intervention to assess: (1) the acceptability and feasibility of participant recruitment, randomisation and allocation concealment; (2) retention rates; (3) variance of continuous outcome measures; (4) outcome measure completion and participant burden; (5) fidelity of intervention delivery; (6) SPA intervention costs; (7) acceptability and feasibility of trial and intervention to participants and others involved.

Design: A two-group, assessor-blinded, randomised controlled external pilot trial with parallel mixed methods process evaluation and economic evaluation.

Setting: Three community-based cohorts in the South-West of England.

The Implications of Public Awareness and Knowledge of Aphasia around the World.

Background: The services provided and the financial support for research into a health condition is influenced by public awareness of a health condition. There has been a wide range of surveys of the public's and health professional's awareness of aphasia throughout the world to gauge levels of awareness. Findings confirm that awareness of aphasia is universally lower than comparable conditions.

The Methodological Quality of Short-Term/Working Memory Treatments in Poststroke Aphasia: A Systematic Review.

Purpose The aims of this systematic review are to provide a critical overview of short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM) treatments in stroke aphasia and to systematically evaluate the internal and external validity of STM/WM treatments. Method A systematic search was conducted in February 2014 and then updated in December 2016 using 13 electronic databases. We provided descriptive characteristics of the included studies and assessed their methodological quality using the Risk of Bias in N-of-1 Trials quantitative scale ( Tate et al.

Revisiting the public awareness of aphasia in Exeter: 16 years on.

: Surveys of awareness of aphasia have been conducted worldwide. There has been no survey of change in awareness in one place over time. A survey in Exeter, UK in 2001 found awareness of aphasia was strikingly low.

Singing for people with aphasia (SPA): a protocol for a pilot randomised controlled trial of a group singing intervention to improve well-being.

Introduction: The singing for people with aphasia (SPA) intervention aims to improve quality of life and well-being for people with poststroke aphasia. A definitive randomised controlled trial (RCT) is required to assess the clinical and cost effectiveness of SPA. The purpose of this pilot study is to assess the feasibility of such a definitive trial and inform its design.

Extending knowledge of the public awareness of aphasia in the Balkans: Serbia and Montenegro.

Purpose: Public awareness of aphasia has been surveyed in a number of countries revealing that it is universally low. We report results of surveys in the Balkan countries Serbia and Montenegro and compare results with data from Croatia and Slovenia.

Methods: Convenience surveys of the general public were conducted in public places like shopping centers/malls and parks in Serbia (N = 400) and Montenegro (N = 500) using an adapted version of the public awareness of aphasia survey questionnaire.

Jackson's Parrot: Samuel Beckett, Aphasic Speech Automatisms, and Psychosomatic Language.

This article explores the relationship between automatic and involuntary language in the work of Samuel Beckett and late nineteenth-century neurological conceptions of language that emerged from aphasiology. Using the work of John Hughlings Jackson alongside contemporary neuroscientific research, we explore the significance of the lexical and affective symmetries between Beckett's compulsive and profoundly embodied language and aphasic speech automatisms. The interdisciplinary work in this article explores the paradox of how and why Beckett was able to search out a longed-for language of feeling that might disarticulate the classical bond between the language, intention, rationality and the human, in forms of expression that seem automatic and "readymade".

Creating psychological connections between intervention recipients: development and focus group evaluation of a group singing session for people with aphasia.

Objectives: The study sought to identify key design features that could be used to create a new framework for group-based health interventions. We designed and tested the first session of a group intervention for stroke survivors with aphasia which was aimed at nurturing new psychological connections between group members.

Setting: The intervention session, a participant focus group and interviews with intervention facilitators were held in a local community music centre in the South West of England.

International patterns of the public awareness of aphasia.

Background: It has been suggested that public awareness of aphasia is vital for extending services, research support, social inclusion and targeted raising of awareness. Earlier studies show that knowledge of aphasia varies across a range of variables, but is very low compared with other conditions.

Aims: To report a series of surveys of public awareness of aphasia from six countries, the largest study conducted this far.

Squaring the round: An unusual progressive graphomotor impairment with post-mortem findings.

Investigations of neurodegenerative disorders may reveal functional relationships in the cognitive system. C.S.

Assessment and treatment of short-term and working memory impairments in stroke aphasia: a practical tutorial.

Background: Aphasia following stroke refers to impairments that affect the comprehension and expression of spoken and/or written language, and co-occurring cognitive deficits are common. In this paper we focus on short-term and working memory impairments that impact on the ability to retain and manipulate auditory-verbal information. Evidence from diverse paradigms (large group studies, case studies) report close links between short-term/working memory and language functioning in aphasia.

Raising public awareness of aphasia in southern Ontario, Canada: A survey.

Purpose: Despite the relatively high prevalence of aphasia, research indicates that, world-wide, public awareness of aphasia is lacking. Of the surveys that have been conducted internationally, none has studied the Canadian public's awareness of aphasia. The purpose of the present survey was to assess public awareness and basic knowledge of aphasia of individuals in southern Ontario, Canada.

The influence of psycholinguistic variables on articulatory errors in naming in progressive motor speech degeneration.

We describe an analysis of speech errors on a confrontation naming task in a man with progressive speech degeneration of 10-year duration from Pick's disease. C.S.

Lost in translation? Issues of content validity in interpreter-mediated aphasia assessments.

In many parts of the world, speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are frequently called upon to assess aphasia in bilingual speakers, or in speakers of languages of which they have little or no knowledge. One of the strategies that SLPs employ in these situations is to involve an interpreter in the assessment process. Three authentic interpreter-mediated aphasia assessments were analysed for the present study, which aimed to determine the degree to which the content validity of the individual tests was compromised in the process of their administration through an interpreter.

Delivering for aphasia.

Providing a quality service for people with aphasia is a primary goal of speech-language pathologists working with neurogenic communication disorders. This paper reviews what is known about the incidence and prevalence of aphasia and what services are provided for people with aphasia. On the basis of the stroke data, the incidence of aphasia in the developed world ranges between 0.

Eighteen years on: What next for the PALPA?

The Psycholinguistic Assessments of Language Processing Abilities (PALPA) is a battery of tests designed to assess language processing abilities in individuals with acquired aphasia. Published in 1992, the battery was well-received by both clinicians and researchers, yet no revised version has been published to date. In this paper, we examine contemporary usage of the PALPA in both clinical and research settings, to inform decisions regarding future developments of the resource.

Outcome of a one-month therapy intensive for chronic aphasia: variable individual responses.

We examined the outcome of a 1-month intensive treatment block for people with chronic aphasia. The selected participants were eight chronically impaired people (mean months post-onset [MPO], 34). We conducted pre- and post-treatment assessments using the English-language version of the Aachen Aphasia Test (EAAT) and the Communicative Effectiveness Index (CETI).

Opportunities to say 'yes': rare speech automatisms in a case of progressive nonfluent aphasia and apraxia.

We describe the investigation of speech automatisms in a man with progressive nonfluent aphasia and apraxias. Occurrence of the automatisms yes and right, were analysed across a range of speech tasks varying in length, propositionality, lexical and articulatory complexity, whether tasks engaged internal generation or external triggering and articulatory distortions, and while completing pantomimes/gestures. No differences were found in occurrence across most tasks but there was a significant interaction between automatism production and apraxic speech errors and during limb praxic tasks, suggesting that production of the automatism was unrelated to linguistic or lexical variables, but was related to the presence of speech apraxia coupled with disinhibition.