Abstract for HONS 10/15
Using Context Within Computer-Aided Rehabilitation to Increase Motivation for People with Aphasia
David Sowry
Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering
University of Canterbury
Abstract
Computer-based rehabilitation has been found to be effective for those who suffer from cognitive
deficits due to brain injury including people with aphasia (PWA). Most aphasia rehabilitation is
repetitive and drill-based, often requiring the patient to practice mentally retrieving words to
complete sentences. This can be tiring, frustrating, and sometimes de-motivating for the PWA.
Furthermore, there are higher rates of depression in PWA. Depression leads to lowered motivation.
The goal of this project is to build an application to aid rehabilitation based on the theories of
motivation previously used primarily in education. This project includes phases for understanding
current popular rehabilitation methods, evaluating features of current software, requirements
gathering, designing. Due to the exploratory nature of the project the lean process was chosen to
be used. Three iterations were performed after an initial domain familiarity. The final
implementation involved creating two different applications: an online PostgreSQL backed RESTful
server with a web based frontend for PWA and the other as a local java swing based question
creator tool that allows medical practitioners to create personalised problems.
