The iPad Is Now Also Helping Stroke Survivors

The iPad has been a big hit with children and adults, and for a couple of years it has helped people with autism communicate and learn. Now it is also helping older adults who have trouble reading after a stroke or another neurological condition.

A stroke can leave someone with a language disorder called aphasia, which can affect the ability to understand written and spoken language. Alzheimer’s disease can also make it hard to read and write. People with these difficulties can receive speech-language services to rehabilitate their language skills.

Speech-language pathologist Barbara Fernandes created an iPad app called Reading Rehabilitation Toolkit that helps adults recover reading skills. It is available in English and Brazilian Portuguese (where it is called “Afasia Pro”), with plans for Spanish and French.

The app combines six reading activities at the word and phrase levels, all crafted to promote success in reading rehabilitation. It has hundreds of words, organized into semantic categories to make it easy to use.

Users match words and pictures. In one activity they look at a picture, read a question and choose an answer. Another activity promotes writing by letting users combine words into short phrases.

This is a step toward a future where family members can take an active role in helping a parent or grandparent who had a stroke regain reading skills at home. Reading practice at home is part of treatment after a stroke, and this app makes a great practice activity that can be monitored.