ISCA Archive Interspeech 2015
ISCA Archive Interspeech 2015

Neolexon — a therapy app for patients with aphasia

Jakob Pfab, Hanna Jakob, Mona Späth, Christoph Draxler

Neolexon is an app for self-paced language training for patients suffering from aphasia. Auditory and reading comprehension as well as oral and written naming tasks are the most common types of exercises in aphasia therapy. For best effects, the exercises must be repeated with high frequency, and they must be adapted to the specific requirements of each patient. The app was designed specifically for tablet devices and implements the four common types of exercises. Due to the patients' cognitive and motor restrictions it features a radically reduced graphical user interface that does not distract from the task and requires only minimal gestural interaction. The content of exercises is dynamically specified by the therapist according to the specific needs of a patient; the material is selected from a deeply annotated database of exercise items. The app was developed as a student project and successfully evaluated by patients and therapists.