Title

Using Virtual Reality to Treat Cognitive & Communication Impairments in Adults

Authors

Aubrey Hicks, Fontbonne University

Faculty Advisor

Kelly Zarifa

Files

Description

Cognitive and communicative deficits are experienced by individuals with dementia, stroke, traumatic brain injury, and developmental disabilities. Skilled speech therapy services are required for these individuals’ experiencing impairments in communication, memory, problem-solving, and processing. Treatment targets may vary including communication, attention, focus, orientation, word retrieval, and executive functioning. Treatment tasks must be personalized and purposeful to provide the most functional therapy possible. Virtual reality (VR) has been proposed as a means to provide these services for individuals to promote independence in their environment, and in turn, more functional success in real life. VR is the “use of interactive simulations created with computer hardware and software to present users with opportunities to engage in environment that appear and feel similar to real-world objects and events.” This session will provide an overview of VR and its effects on cognitive and communicative impairments in adults.

Keywords

Virtual Reality, VR, Cognitive impairments, Communication impairments, Adults, Dementia, Stroke, Traumatic brain injury, Developmental disabilities

Disciplines

Communication Sciences and Disorders | Speech and Hearing Science | Speech Pathology and Audiology

References

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Roman-Filip, C., & Catană, M.-G. (2020). Stroke in young adults – a challenge for etiology, treatment and Rehabilitation. Balneo Research Journal, (Vol.11, no.4), 425–429. https://doi.org/10.12680/balneo.2020.373

Vaezipour, A., Aldridge, D., Koenig, S., Theodoros, D., & Russell, T. (2021). “it’s really exciting to think where it could go”: a mixed-method investigation of clinician acceptance, barriers and enablers of virtual reality technology in Communication Rehabilitation. Disability and Rehabilitation, 44(15), 3946–3958. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2021.1895333

Yamato, T. P., Pompeu, J. E., Pompeu, S. M. A. A., & Hassett, L. (2016). Virtual reality for stroke rehabilitation. Physical Therapy, 96(10), 1508–1513. https://doi.org/10.2522/ptj.20150539

Presentation Type

Poster Presentation

College

College of Education and Allied Health

Department

Communication Disorders and Deaf Education

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Degree Program

Speech-Language Pathology

Publication Date

Spring 2023

Publisher

Fontbonne University Archives

City

St. Louis, MO

Recommended Citation

Hicks, Aubrey, "Using Virtual Reality to Treat Cognitive & Communication Impairments in Adults" (2023). 2023 SLP Posters. 24.
https://griffinshare.fontbonne.edu/slp-posters-2023/24

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.