When someone talks to you 💬, whether to ask a question or share information, they expect you to understand. 👍

The same thing happens on the rehab unit. If you're a person with aphasia, you might not get the full message. 😕 And that could make it a lot harder for you to get the most out of your therapy sessions.

It's not surprising that auditory comprehension plays a major role in rehab success and quality of life post-discharge (Wallace et al., 2022). Even our patients with the types of aphasia with presumably “intact” receptive language can experience subtle deficits that may impact progress. 🤯

💡 And since auditory comprehension depends on attention & memory in addition to language processing, treatment can be less than straightforward.

So, what does the research tell us about how to treat it? What are the different kinds of restorative treatments and compensatory strategies? 🤔

We break it all down for you (with references) in our latest blog: What SLPs Need to Know: Auditory Comprehension. 👂✔️

Treat Auditory Comprehension with Technology

"I never see improvement in comprehension when I treat it in therapy," said many an SLP over the years. This is likely because it's nearly impossible to deliver a sufficient dosage of therapy in the standard outpatient schedule. Even with daily inpatient visits, it's rare to get the intensive practice needed for improvement.

Several of the researched treatments for auditory comprehension use computers to deliver the intensity of therapy needed to see results. That's why we've built interactive treatments for auditory comprehension into our web-based platform, the Virtual Rehab Center.

Each of these treatments can be used in the clinic and assigned for free homework. The difficulty auto-adjusts based on performance, and hints are available for added support when you're not there. Treatments include:

💬 Spoken Word Decision – Yes/No tasks with words that increase in complexity
🖼️ Identifying Spoken Words – Match audio to pictures with growing choice sets
🧭 Understanding Spoken Directions – Match functional instructions to pictures
🔈 NEW!! Everyday Listening Comprehension - Answer questions about real-life audio like news, podcasts, voicemails, and conversations using listening strategies

Check out our newest treatment:

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In addition to over 40 interactive treatments, the Tactus Virtual Rehab Center offers 60+ patient-friendly PDF handouts, including listening comprehension and communication partner strategies, free homework, and more! 💕

🚀 Try the Virtual Rehab Center for FREE: tactustherapy.com/rehab​

Thanks for doing what you do—combining compassion, clinical insight, and evidence-based care to help your patients understand what matters most to them. 💙

All the best,

Megan

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Pssst! We're having our annual APP SALE for Speech-Language-Hearing Month in May! Make your wish list and help your patients get ready to buy the apps they need at our lowest prices. The sale will run May 1-15 for iOS and Android.