An assistive-technology intervention for verbose speech after traumatic brain injury: a single case study.

OBJECTIVE

To assess an assistive-technology intervention for neurobehavioral change, coordinated with a Web-based data recording system.

PARTICIPANT: Male, mid-thirties, with a complex history, having verbose speech subsequent to traumatic brain injury.

DESIGN

BAB' single-case. INTERVENTION AND MEASURES: The intervention (B and B' trials) was a digital recording of the participant's voice, stating "be brief," delivered at fixed intervals by a personal digital assistant. Utterance start and stop times were monitored with a wireless, Web-enabled device and were recorded in a server-side database.

RESULTS

Utterance frequency did not change. However, the total utterance time was reduced during B trials, attributable to the reduced frequency of lengthier utterances.

CONCLUSIONS

The target behavior was modified successfully. The participant adopted a specific cue-appropriate strategy. Since a variety of alternative response strategies may be required of a person, given a range of context-specific social practices and community settings, the importance of context-sensitive assistive technology cue repertoires is discussed.