A group of students from National Sun Yat-Sen University launched an App for patients with Aphasia in order to improve the imbalance in language rehabilitation supply and demand.

Statistics show the total number of Aphasia cases in Taiwan to be 65,000, and the causes of the disease include stroke, head trauma, brain tumor or infection and so on.

However, every language therapist in Taiwan treats 108 patients. In this case, many Aphasia patients miss out on the golden period of six months for treatment.

The students from Sun Yat-Sen University collaborate with Dr. Zhang Nai-wen, a music therapist from the University of Minnesota, to test the App. The test results show the average response time and accuracy of all Aphasia cases have made significant progress, and that the patients seem more confident during the conversations.

The Aphasia patients use the App to download and practice exercises such as listening comprehension, naming, repetition and other language trainings, without the need of a speech therapist. The patients’ family members can check on their practice performance recorded by the App as well.

Translated by June
Edited by Olivia Yang

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