Keywords

technology, sentence production, aphasia, artificial intelligence, augmentative and alternative communication

Abstract

Background

People with aphasia may be supported by augmentative and alternative communication systems, but further development is necessary to improve the communication support such systems provide. Advances in artificial intelligence methods of natural language processing may provide improved support for people with aphasia, but development and testing involving people with aphasia is critical.

Aims

The purpose of the study is to describe the development and pilot testing of a new AAC system for people with aphasia, a mobile web app named Aphasia-GPT.

Methods & Procedures

Aphasia-GPT is specifically designed to receive spoken input from a user with aphasia; it then provides a list of suggested or predicted utterances that are well-formed while still based on the disordered input. Three participants with aphasia participated in language sampling with and without the support of the system. Outcomes of the support provided by the system were qualitatively summarized and described. The participants were also interviewed for their perspectives on the system.

Outcomes & Results

Results from the pilot test of the Aphasia-GPT system in three people with moderate aphasia suggested its current form may best serve as a sentence production aid for those with non-fluent aphasia and relatively few phonemic paraphasias or apraxic errors. Results also revealed areas for future improvement, including handling of less intelligible speech and providing applicable suggestions for a broader array of communication scenarios.

Conclusions

User feedback and clinical observations support further development of the system to enhance communication for a broader range of profiles and communication tasks.

Original Publication Citation

Bailey, D. J., Herget, F., Hansen, D., Burton, F., Pitt, G., Harmon, T., & Wingate, D. (2024). Generative AI applied to AAC for aphasia: A pilot study of Aphasia-GPT. Aphasiology, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/02687038.2024.2445663

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2024-12-31

Publisher

Aphasiology

Language

English

College

David O. McKay School of Education

Department

Communication Disorders

University Standing at Time of Publication

Associate Professor

Download

Share

COinS