Assessing an animal-assisted treatment program for adults with aphasia: The Persons with Aphasia Training Dogs Program

项目总结/摘要 这项拟议中的研究评估了成年失语症患者的动物辅助治疗（AAT）计划， 获得性语言障碍最常见的是中风，影响超过200万 美国人失语症患者的标志性障碍是单词检索困难，有时 严重到个体只能说出一两个单词。虽然从定义上讲， 失语症对健康最具破坏性的一些后果并不是找词问题 他们自己，但社会孤立可能导致言语的丧失。这在以下情况下尤其具有影响力： 考虑到失语症患者保留了沟通的动力和务实的精神， 沟通技巧，如使用'肢体语言'，面部表情，和语气这样做。正是这些 失语症患者的优势，使他们成为与动物一起工作的理想候选人， 如果不是更多地取决于我们如何交流而不是我们说什么。目前提案中评估的治疗方法， 失语症患者训练犬（PATD）计划旨在针对 失语症的后果，包括失去自信和社会孤立，通过利用 失语症患者的优势和人与动物互动的好处。我们的具体目标是：（1） 确定是否有失语症的人，通过参与PATD计划，可以学习， 实施积极的强化技术，训练狗的基本服从技能，和2）评估 可行性度量，包括计划的可接受性/满意度。我们将通过以下方式实现这些目标： 让失语症患者参加每周一次的治疗，在治疗期间，他们将与一种语言合作， 病理学家和一个家庭或收容所居住的狗接受培训，在积极强化狗的训练 技术.我们将通过我们的主要结果指标评估项目的可接受性， 失语症患者生活（Kagan et al.，2010年），并辅以参与者的PATD经验的自我报告。我们 假设失语症患者将成功地对狗实施积极强化技术 培训以及参与PATD计划将增强信心和社会影响力 参与者的参与。目标1和目标2的预期成果将证明以下方面的可行性： 施用犬辅助的失语症治疗并量化其效果。据我们所知， 这是第一次对失语症患者进行AAT研究， 有助于建立一个明确定义和可复制的方法，将动物纳入失语症的证据基础 治疗这些预期成果的结合将产生重要的积极影响， 证明了作为失语症治疗的一部分的人-犬互动的效果，并通过提供 在此基础上，扩大失语症康复研究，针对失语症的障碍效应。

Project Summary/Abstract The proposed research evaluates an animal-assisted treatment (AAT) program for adults with aphasia, an acquired language impairment most commonly resulting from stroke that affects more than 2 million Americans. The hallmark impairment for persons with aphasia is word retrieval difficulty, which is sometimes so severe that individuals are able only to produce one or two words. Although by definition a difficulty with words, some of the consequences of aphasia most disruptive to well-being are not the word-finding problems themselves, but the social isolation from which the loss of words can result. This is particularly impactful when considered in light of the fact that individuals with aphasia retain the drive to communicate and the pragmatic communication skills such as use of ‘body language’, facial expression, and tone of voice to do so. It is these strengths of persons with aphasia that make them ideal candidates for work with animals, who attend as much if not more to how we communicate than to what we say. The treatment evaluated in the current proposal, the Persons with Aphasia Training Dogs (PATD) Program, is designed to target the psychosocial consequences of aphasia, including loss of self-confidence and social isolation, through harnessing the strengths of persons with aphasia and the benefits of human-animal interaction. Our specific aims are to 1) determine whether people with aphasia, through participation in the PATD program, can learn and implement positive reinforcement techniques to train dogs in basic obedience skills, and 2) assess feasibility metrics including program acceptability/satisfaction. We will accomplish these aims by enrolling people with aphasia in weekly treatment sessions during which they will team with a speech-language pathologist and a family- or shelter-dwelling dog to receive training in positive-reinforcement dog training techniques. We will assess program acceptability with our primary outcome measure, the Assessment of Living with Aphasia (Kagan et al., 2010), complemented by self-report of participants’ PATD experience. Our hypotheses are that people with aphasia will successfully implement positive reinforcement techniques for dog training and that participation in the PATD program will result in increases in confidence and social engagement for the participants. The expected outcomes of aims 1 and 2 will demonstrate the feasibility of administering, and quantifying the effects of, canine-assisted aphasia treatment. To our knowledge, there is no other program of this kind for persons with aphasia and this is the first study of AAT for persons with aphasia to contribute to the evidence-base a clearly-defined and replicable method for incorporating animals into aphasia treatment. The combination of these expected outcomes will make an important positive impact by demonstrating the effects of human-canine interaction as part of aphasia treatment and by providing the foundation upon which to expand aphasia rehabilitation research targeting handicapping effects of aphasia.