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

项目摘要/摘要 这项拟议的研究评估了一项针对成人失语症的动物辅助治疗(AAT)计划，以及 后天语言障碍，最常见的原因是中风，影响超过200万人 美国人。失语症患者的标志损害是单词提取困难，有时是 如此严重，以至于个人只能说出一两个词。尽管根据定义，这是一种困难 失语症对身心健康最具破坏性的一些后果并不是找词的问题 而是一种社会孤立，这种社会孤立会导致语言的丧失。这在以下情况下尤其有影响 考虑到失语症患者保持着沟通的动力和务实的 沟通技巧，如使用“肢体语言”、面部表情和语气。就是这些 失语症患者的优点，使他们成为与动物一起工作的理想人选，他们参加了同样多的活动 如果不是更多地关注我们如何沟通，也更多地关注我们所说的话。当前提案中评估的治疗方案， 失语症训练犬(PATD)计划旨在针对心理社会 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) 确定失语症患者是否可以通过参与PATD计划学习和 实施积极强化技术来训练狗的基本服从技能，以及2)评估 可行性指标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 招募失语症患者参加每周一次的治疗，在治疗期间，他们将与一种言语语言进行合作 病理学家和一只家庭或收容所的狗接受阳性强化犬训练 技巧。我们将使用我们的主要结果衡量标准评估计划的可接受性 失语症生活(Kagan等人，2010年)，辅以参与者PATD经历的自我报告。我们的 假设失语症患者将成功地对狗实施积极强化技术 培训和参与PATD方案将增加信心和社会 参与者的参与度。目标1和目标2的预期结果将证明 对犬类辅助失语治疗的效果进行管理和量化。据我们所知，没有 失语症患者的其他此类计划，这是第一次针对失语症患者的AAT研究 为将动物纳入失语症的明确定义和可复制的方法贡献证据基础 治疗。这些预期结果的结合将在#年产生重要的积极影响。 展示了作为失语症治疗一部分的人-犬互动的影响，并通过提供 在此基础上，针对失语症的障碍效应，开展失语症康复研究。

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.