Abstract
Agrammatism is a common symptom occurring in post-stroke aphasia and frequently addressed in traditional language therapy. However, most commercial serious games and mHealth applications aimed at independent aphasia treatment include only few, if any, tasks focusing on morphosyntax. “Training Impaired Grammar” (TIGr) is a project which attempts to fill the existing gap for Russian speakers with aphasia. The app is going to cover eight areas of morphosyntax, including sentence structure, verb retrieval and various types of verbal and nominal inflection. Besides, it is going to be adaptable, i.e. each of these areas is going to be subdivided into four difficulty levels. Importantly, TIGr is planned to capture the users’ attention and strengthen their motivation with a narrative framework and a reward system, which only rarely can be found in apps for aphasia treatment. The game is currently under development: the stimuli and distractors are being piloted, and the details of the plotline and design are being elaborated.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
It was decided to split this level in two in order to have a smoother between-level transition and to provide more various tasks; essentially, there is a slight increase of difficulty on the second “moderate” level due to a greater number of distractors and/or a slightly more difficult grammatical phenomenon in question.
- 2.
A survey of persons of over 50 years of age is currently being conducted as to what kind of journey would be more logical and captivating for our target audience, people of age being the group most susceptible to strokes. We have so far collected only a dozen of responses, but the overwhelming majority of our informants embrace the adventure genre with enthusiasm. The opinions, however, are now equally split as to the exact route of this travel: whether it should include the whole world, only the climate zones that tigers inhabit, or only Russia – the birthplace of most of our target audience. The specific locations will be developed based on the feedback obtained from the survey.
References
Vos, T., et al.: Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. Lancet 396, 1204–1222 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30925-9
Malyutina, S.A., Iskra, E.V.: Public awareness of aphasia: a survey of clinicians. Consilium Medicum 19(2.1), 56–59 (2017)
Repetto, C., Paolillo, M.P., Tuena, C., Bellinzona, F., Riva, G.: Innovative technology-based interventions in aphasia rehabilitation: a systematic review. Aphasiology (2020). https://doi.org/10.1080/02687038.2020.1819957
App reviews by the NHS. Northern Devon Healthcare. Best apps for stroke patients – Free NHS guide. https://www.my-therappy.co.uk/apps/stroke-brain-injury/talking. Accessed 15 May 2023
National Aphasia Association. Aphasia apps, https://www.aphasia.org/aphasia-resources/aphasia-apps/. Accessed 15 May 2023
Mubin, O., Alnajjar, F., Al Mahmud, A., Jishtu, N., Alsinglawi, B.: Exploring serious games for stroke rehabilitation: a scoping review. Disabil. Rehabil. Assist. Technol. 17(2), 159–165 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1080/17483107.2020.1768309
Ferreira-Brito, F., Fialho, M., Virgolino, A., Neves, I., Miranda, A.C., Sousa-Santos, N., et al.: Game-based interventions for neuropsychological assessment, training and rehabilitation: Which game-elements to use? A systematic review. J. Biomed. Inform. 98 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbi.2019.103287
Shklovskiy, V.M., Vizel, T.G.: Restoring the language function in patients with various types of aphasia. Boccтaнoвлeниe peчeвoй фyнкции y бoльныx c paзными фopмaми aфaзии. “Defectologist Association”, V Sekachov, Moscow, Russia (2000)
Edmonds, L., Nadeau, S., Kiran, S.: Effect of Verb Network Strengthening Treatment (VNeST) on lexical retrieval of content words in sentences in persons with aphasia. Aphasiology 23(3), 402–424 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1080/02687030802291339
Martin, N., Thompson, C.K., Worrall, L.E.: Aphasia rehabilitation: the impairment and its consequences. Plural Pub, San Diego (2008)
Bastiaanse, R., Thompson, C.: Perspectives on Agrammatism (Brain, Behaviour and Cognition). Psychology Press, London (2012)
Bastiaanse, R., Hurkmans, J., Links, P.: The training of verb production in Broca’s aphasia: A multiple-baseline across-behaviours study. Aphasiology 20(2–4), 298–311 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1080/02687030500474922
Akinina, Y., Malyutina, S., Ivanova, M., Iskra, E., Mannova, E., Dragoy, O.: Russian normative data for 375 action pictures and verbs. Behav. Res. Methods 47(3), 691–707 (2015). https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-014-0492-9
Liashevskaya, O.N., Sharov, S.A.: A frequency dictionary of the contemporary Russian language (based on the Russian National Corpus). Чacтoтный cлoвapь coвpeмeннoгo pyccкoгo языкa (нa мaтepиaлax Haциoнaльнoгo кopпyca pyccкoгo языкa). Azbukovnik, Moscow, Russia (2009)
Acknowledgements
This work is an output of a research project implemented as part of the Basic Research Program at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University). We are extremely thankful to Ekaterina Zorina for her invaluable feedback.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Gorshkov, G., Buivolova, O., Malyutina, S., Pozdniakova, V., Soloukhina, O., Dragoy, O. (2023). “Training Impaired Grammar” – A Serious Game for Agrammatism Treatment. In: Haahr, M., Rojas-Salazar, A., Göbel, S. (eds) Serious Games. JCSG 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14309. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-44751-8_33
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-44751-8_33
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-44750-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-44751-8
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)