mjah Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 My grandfather suffered a pretty serious stroke yesterday morning. He essentially lost all voluntary movement of any kind apart from moving his eyes, but he's conscious and responsive. According to his doctors, his prognosis is good for a slow but impressive recovery, and he hopefully will get a good amount of movement and speech back over time. I'm running with the doctors' assurances that he will have decent use of his left hand (now his "good" side) within a few weeks. In the mean time, he's going to go nuts if he can't communicate with people. He's a WWII vet who is (was) still barking out orders 60+ years later, and a bigtime talker who loves nothing more than to have a full conversation. I'm looking for some software that, once he regains a bit of fine motor control in one hand, allows him to string together sentences by picking them on a computer screen, after which a synthesized voice is cued to speak the words. It's not the same as talking, but it's far better than not talking or being peppered with yes/no questions all the time. The challenge with this software is, it can't just be one of those standard "type-and-talk" programs because they generally rely on someone typing or copy/pasting in the text for the computer to subsequently "speak." That's way too much to expect from a victim of a serious stroke, especially early on in their recovery. The interface has to be completely different, simplified and highly adaptive. I have some solid ideas and experience with simple and intelligent adaptive interfaces, plus enough knowledge of synthesized speech, to make a go at programming this myself. But I'd prefer to pay for someone else's work if it's polished, packaged, and useful. This would also get the setup in front of him earlier, saving him some frustration as he recovers. Is there anything like this out there already? I'm about 2 days away from starting on this if nobody else has done it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigMike619 Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 i dont know of anything man but my thoughts and prayers go out to your grandpa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sticksboi05 Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 You should check with American Stroke Association but I'm sorry to hear that he had a stroke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skinsfan328 Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 I'm not sure,sorry to hear that! My father died from a brainstem stroke in Feb,before he lost all movement we used one of those magnet boards with the big letters like kids play with!!!Good luck, God Bless.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HogNose Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 Very sorry to hear this my prayers to you and your family. I came across this website when I googled software...maybe it's a start in the right direction. http://strokesoftware.com/success.htm *edit After re-reading your post I don't think this site is what you are looking for but I'll keep the link in the post so you can look at it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burgold Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 I remember seeing a number of devices that would sit on a tray or by the wheelchair where they could press a button which would key in pre-programmed phrases or words. That made it a little easier. I'd get in touch with a speech language therapist. Many public schools here in Mont. County have one and I'm sure it's similar up in Phila. Describe the situation and he/she can probably give you the name of a good adaptive device. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron78 Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 I wonder if Nintendo Wii has any games that would serve your purposes. Wii is supposed to be a good stimulant for physical and emotional rehab patients. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeanCollins Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 I took care of my father for 4 years after his stroke left him without speech and the use of his right arm. He had a lot of therapy for several years and we couldn't help him to communicate more than saying one or two words at a time. I tried type writers, flash cards ect... He could understand perfectly, written and spoken words but couldn't not express/convert thoughts to language. It was like very bad short term memory, when you can't think of the word you're looking for, but it was all the words. Soon after he had his stroke, in '91, they came out with a drug to unblock arteries if administered soon after the stroke. It probably would've have lessened the damage to his brain. Be patient, he'll make considerable progress in the next few months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
No_Pressure Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 They exist, my autistic cousin has had one for years that does just that. One was actually programmable which sounded like a good idea except for my grandmother programmed it and my cousin would walk around the house pressing "I", "WANT", "A BANANA" over and over and over and over and over and over. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjah Posted December 4, 2008 Author Share Posted December 4, 2008 Thanks for the replies and the kind words, everyone. I'm going to visit my grandfather now. After getting more details on his prognosis for recovery, I'll have a better idea of what we're up against. Hopefully the use of at least one hand will still look like a reasonable goal after today's tests. Thanks for those links too -- I'll check them out now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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