Many stroke survivors have aphasia. Aphasia affects a person’s ability to communicate. Many people with aphasia report difficulties in reading which affect their everyday lives. This research will produce an assessment of functional, everyday reading. The assessment will help therapists working with people with aphasia to identify why the person is finding it difficult to read and monitor the effects of treatment. It will also help researchers evaluate treatments for reading in the future.
The research will help many people with aphasia who have reading problems. There are currently no comprehensive assessments of reading to assess people’s difficulties. This project will produce an assessment that can be used by speech and language therapists working with people with aphasia to identify the nature of their reading problems, allowing more targeted therapy. It will also allow more systematic study of the effects of different reading treatments.
There is currently very little research into the assessment and treatment of functional reading difficulties in people with aphasia. The assessment builds on what is known about the difficulties that impact the reading of single words and the comprehension of spoken sentences.