(Washington State) After a debilitating stroke cut off Nathan Shoultz’s ability to communicate, technology is helping him to reconnect. For almost a year the Pottersville man, who was also left with limited mobility in his right arm and hand, has been using applications on an iPad as part of his speech therapy at Glens Falls Hospital Rehabilitation and Wellness Center.
“We can use one device to assist and support and retrain all aspects of memory that before we were dependent on multiple types of devices,” said Dr. Phyllis Broege, the center’s neuropsychologist.
Shoultz, a 33-year-old web designer, suffered a stroke in December 2011 while at home with his wife and four children. He spent time at Albany Medical Center and Sunnyview Rehabilitation Center before he
was referred in February 2012 to the Glens Falls center, where he receives occupational, physical and
speech therapies several hours per week. Speech therapist Cheryl Hoffis said Shoultz was making progress with conventional methods such as worksheets, picture cards and therapy books, but one day he showed her Quiet Time on his iPad.
Quiet Time is an app he developed for Word of Life in Schroon Lake before he suffered his stroke. It features scripture readings and a journal system through which users can communicate.Soon, Hoffis was incorporating Quiet Time into Shoultz’s rehabilitation. To help him learn to read again, Hoffis had him listen to passages and read them aloud. They worked together on responding to questions about the text.
“This ties into all the communication skills Nate needs to be functional,” Hoffis said.
Hoffis now uses about a dozen apps, including Lumosity, Rosetta Stone and Pages, to help Shoultz improve his cognitive and speech skills. She believes his stroke recovery has progressed faster because of the technology.
Shoultz’s wife, Beth, calls the iPad a “crucial tool” that helps him not only continue practicing what he has learned in therapy but helps him interact with her and their children at home.“He’ll whip that out if he gets stuck and needs that to help him,” she said. “He’s come really far.”
Concurrent with the time Hoffis has been using the iPad technology with Shoultz, Broege has partnered
with a multidisciplinary team at the Glens Falls facility to develop a more comprehensive cognitive rehabilitation program.
She said the use of iPad technology has “unlimited” potential, not just for computer-based cognitive retraining but as a tool to help patients maintain their independence.
“Back in the old days, you would have to carry a briefcase with you, a pill organizer, a timer, a watch to remind you when to take your pills, a calendar. All of these things can be accomplished with the iPad. That is what helps the client become functional in the community,” Broege said. “Nate is already doing that for all of those things because he was doing it before.”
Hoffis, the speech therapist, is now using the technology as an “instructional strategy” for another patient who wanted to learn to cook again following a stroke. This necessitated being able to communicate which dish she wanted to prepare, the needed ingredients and the step-by-step directions.
Hoffis downloaded a dish on the app, allrecipes.com, and helped the woman write a grocery list. She said
the patient was able to communicate what the steps were and how she was going to cook the food.
“She left here with it written on a piece of paper, but this tool opened up … quick access to information
that I could use in treatment,” Hoffis said. Broege believes the iPad technology could be applied to a host of neurological disorders that affect cognitive function, including traumatic brain injuries, multiple sclerosis and early dementia, if a person had been trained to use it when he could still learn.
“This is an unbelievable tool,” Broege said. “I’m wondering if Apple (the iPad manufacturer) understands how useful it is in terms of people with disabilities and helping people with disabilities potentially function independently.”
The iPad for therapy use at Glens Falls Hospital Rehabilitation and Wellness Center is made possible by a grant from North Country Hardship Fund.
(Source: poststar.com)
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