Tami Howe

University of Canterbury | UC · Department of Communication Disorders

Background: Evidence-based recommendations for a core outcome set (COS; minimum set of outcomes) for aphasia treatment research have been developed (the Research Outcome Measurement in Aphasia-ROMA, COS). Five recommended core outcome constructs: communication, language, quality of life, emotional well-being and patient-reported satisfaction/impac...

More than 50 years of research has demonstrated the profound effect that aphasia has on people with the condition and their family members. In the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, the World Health Organization described the impact of an individual's health condition on a significant other as "third-party disabilit...

Background: A core outcome set (COS; an agreed, minimum set of outcomes) was needed to address the heterogeneous measurement of outcomes in aphasia treatment research and to facilitate the production of transparent, meaningful, and efficient outcome data. Objective: The Research Outcome Measurement in Aphasia (ROMA) consensus statement provides...

Purpose: Aphasia impacts family members. Therefore family members may also derive indirect benefits when their relative with aphasia chooses to participate in a group. The current study explored the benefits for family members of their relative with aphasia participating in a variety of types groups post-stroke as perceived by family members and th...

Working with bilingual Samoan-English speakers with aphasia is a potentially complex area of practice for Speech Pathology and other allied health professionals. The presence of a communication disorder, a possible language barrier and a lack of research regarding management of this population can pose challenges to allied health service delivery....

Background: Research on the benefits of group participation for adults with aphasia poststroke has tended to focus on interventions led by speech–language therapists (SLTs). Over the course of their lives after a stroke, however, individuals with aphasia may participate in a variety of types of groups including peer-facilitated aphasia, volunteer-f...

Background: Speech-language therapists need to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate services for their clients. However, language assessment with bilingual adults with aphasia can be challenging for clinicians, due to the complexity surrounding both aphasia and bilingualism. There are few investigations focusing on the assessment of bi...

Background: Visual methods, including participant-generated photography as a stimulus to qualitative interviews, have a long history in the social science research as a means of enriching qualitative research data. However, little is known about their use with people with a communication disability such as aphasia. In this article, we provide a com...

Purpose: Aphasia is a communication disorder associated with impairments in spoken language, understanding, reading and writing that impacts upon daily activities, participation in society and the quality of life of those with the condition and their family members. Despite existing literature demonstrating the pervasive and significant effects of...

Purpose: The WHO's International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) describes third-party disability as the disability experienced by significant others as a consequence of their family members' health condition (WHO, 2001). A systematic review of the literature was conducted to summarize the current knowledge of third-par...

Background: In the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), the World Health Organization introduces the term "third-party disability" and identifies the need for further investigation into family members' Functioning and Disability in relation to a significant other's health condition. Aims: This qualitative invest...

This commentary aims to extend the debate of the lead article authors ( Wylie, McAllister, Davidson, and Marshall, 2013 ) by translating the nine recommendations of the World Report on Disability into a plan of action for the aphasia community. Solutions for the advancement of aphasia science and services are presented at international (macro), nat...

Background: Aphasia affects family members in addition to the individuals with the communication disorder. In order to develop appropriate services for the relatives of people with aphasia post-stroke, their rehabilitation goals need to be identified. Aim: The aim of the current investigation was to identify the rehabilitation goals that family mem...

Purpose: A systematic review of the literature was conducted to determine the positive effects of aphasia, the communication disorder, on family members with findings categorized according to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. Method: The Cochrane Library, CINAHL, PsycINFO, PubMed, and Web of Science were search...

Background: Aphasia affects family members in addition to the individuals with the communication disorder. In order to develop appropriate services for the relatives of people with aphasia post-stroke, their rehabilitation goals need to be identified. Aim: The aim of the current investigation was to identify the rehabilitation goals that family mem...

Background: Despite the central importance of goal setting in aphasia rehabilitation, the notion of the goal itself has not been fully explored.Aims: This paper considers how speech pathologists conceptualise the nature of the “goal” in aphasia rehabilitation.Methods & Procedures: The researchers conducted a qualitative study involving 34 speech pa...

Loss of friendship post-onset of aphasia is well documented, with reduced social network size and social isolation commonly reported. Because friendship has strong links to psychological well-being and health, increased knowledge about friendships of individuals with aphasia will have important clinical implications. This study aimed to explore the...

Literature review

Background: There have been numerous calls for rehabilitation professionals to involve patients or clients in decisions about the goals of therapy. And yet collaborative goal setting in rehabilitation remains uncommon and is particularly difficult to achieve for people with aphasia.Aims: This discussion paper describes a new framework for conceptua...

The concept of living successfully with aphasia has recently emerged as an alternative to more traditional "deficit" models in aphasiology, encouraging a focus on positive rather than negative outcomes. This research aimed to integrate findings from studies exploring the perspectives of three participant groups (individuals with aphasia, speech-lan...

Unlabelled: Language and lifestyle changes experienced following the onset of aphasia extend beyond the individual to impact family members of persons with aphasia. Research exploring the meaning of living successfully with aphasia has explored the perspectives of individuals with aphasia and speech-language pathologists. Family members' views of...

Goal-setting is considered an essential part of rehabilitation practice and integral to person-centredness. However, people with aphasia are not always satisfied with goal-setting, and speech-language pathologists are concerned about the appropriateness of therapy. Furthermore, family members are often excluded from goal-setting, despite the impact...

Background: Exploring the concept of living successfully with aphasia challenges researchers and clinicians to identify positive rather than negative adaptive processes and factors that may inform clinical interventions and other community-based services for people with aphasia. Previous research on this topic has focused on the perspectives of in...

Background: The goals of people with aphasia should guide service delivery. Services are increasingly influenced by the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) (WHO, 200145. World Health Organisation (WHO) . 2001. International classification of functioning, disability and health (ICF), Geneva, Switzerland: World H...

The World Health Organization International ClasszJication of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) (WHO, 2001) has recently called for research to investigate the environmental factors that influence the participation of individuals with various health conditions. Participation in life may be hindered if society creates negative environmental...

Employing Systemic Functional Linguistics, this paper presents a critical discourse analysis of talk about goals for aphasia therapy by five people with aphasia, their five family members, and their eight treating speech-language pathologists. While speech-language pathologists talked explicitly about goals, people with aphasia and their family mem...

Background: Previous research into metaphoric expression has suggested that metaphor offers a window into intra-individual conceptions as well as into socio-cultural understandings of illness and recovery. This study explored how people with aphasia, their family members, and their speech-language pathologists described their experiences of rehabil...

Background: A life-coaching and positive psychology approach to aphasia has recently been advocated by Audrey Holland, to whom this issue is dedicated. Aims: This paper reviews our recent research which informs the three basic assumptions behind a life-coaching approach to aphasia: (1) learning to live successfully with aphasia takes time; (2) apha...

Background: While the negative impact of aphasia has been the focus of much research, few studies have investigated more positive examples of people living with aphasia. Exploring the concept of living successfully with aphasia from an insider perspective can enhance current research by providing positively framed data that balance this negative sk...

The aim of this article is to present an argument, supported by evidence, that relationship-centred care should be at the heart of aphasia rehabilitation. This conclusion stems from a number of studies that have explored the perspectives of people with aphasia and the interaction between them, their families and their treating speech language patho...

Background: Speech‐language pathologists have been encouraged to create communication‐friendly environments to enable the everyday participation of their clients with aphasia. However, we still do not know the scope of the negative environmental factors (barriers) and positive environmental factors (facilitators) that need to be addressed in order...

Mobile phone use increases social participation. People with the communication disorder of aphasia are disadvantaged in the use of information and communication technology such as mobile phones and are reported to be more socially isolated than their peers. The World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and...

The language changes experienced by a person with aphasia following a stroke often have sudden and longlasting negative impact on friendships. Friendship relationships are core to social engagement, quality of life, and emotional well-being. The aims of this study were to describe everyday communication with friends for older people with and withou...

Background: Access to the community is increasingly being recognised as an important right of all people. To date, most of the research on community access for people with disabilities has been on individuals with physical disorders. Recently, Howe, Worrall, and Hickson (2007) conducted an in-depth interview study to explore the environmental facto...

The World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) conceptualizes functioning and disability as a dynamic interaction between a person's health condition and their contextual factors. Contextual factors "represent the complete background of an individual's life and living" and comprise two compo...

Background: Discrimination on the basis of disability is prohibited in many countries and therefore research on communication accessibility for people with aphasia has become a priority. Aims: The aim of this paper is to summarise and discuss the results of a series of research studies, carried out in one Centre, into accessibility issues for peopl...

Background: The loss of language and the inability to communicate effectively as a result of aphasia often affects community participation. Within the World Health Organisation International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, disability is recognised as a dynamic interaction between the individual's health condition, such as apha...

Background: Accessibility is often constructed in terms of physical accessibility. There has been little research into how the environment can accommodate the communicative limitations of people with aphasia. Communication accessibility for people with aphasia is conceptualised in this paper within the World Health Organisation's International Clas...

Speech and language impairments can result in communication disabilities that can affect clients' capacity to read, write and participate in conversations and social situations.

Background: The provision of aphasia-friendly environments is important for reducing the disability experienced by people with aphasia. However, the term aphasia-friendly environment has yet to be explicitly defined in the literature. Aims. This review defines aphasia-friendly environments, critically evaluates the relevant literature. and highligh...

Background: The provision of aphasia-friendly environments is important for reducing the disability experienced by people with aphasia. However, the term "aphasia-friendly environment" has yet to be explicitly defined in the literature. Aims: This review defines aphasia-friendly environments, critically evaluates the relevant literature, and highli...