A Companion for Aphasia Training: Development and Early Stakeholder Evaluation of a Robot-Assisted Speech Training App

Aphasia is a common symptom of stroke. Patients affected may experience difficulties in all aspects of language. To complement traditional logopedic therapy, we developed a speech training application for a social robot, allowing affected individuals to perform additional training independently. In an early evaluation, a representative of each main stakeholder group we identified - namely persons with aphasia, care staff, and speech therapists - evaluated our application in terms of perceived usefulness, ease of use, and overall user experience. The robot guided the participants through the training session autonomously and most exercises were completed without help, thus proving the feasibility of our concept. The participants rated the application overall as positive and we achieved promising results in terms of attitude towards and intention to use the system. Furthermore, the social component of the training with the robot was very well received among the participants. In the future, the training content will be revised with the help of a linguist, to adequately support the training needs of persons with aphasia.