Specific and intensive language rehabilitation on post-stroke aphasia using eCALAP: a single-case experimental design

Background and purpose Effective rehabilitation needs to be intensive, specific, and suited to the clinical reality of care. Based on previous work, we developed the eCALAP, a tool for aphasia evaluation that generates a tailored rehabilitation program that can be used with the therapist or independently. The aim of this study is to demonstrate the effectiveness of the eCALAP rehabilitation program for people with aphasia (PWA).

Five PWA were included in this concurrent multiple baseline Single-Case Experimental Design (SCED). Repeated measures consisted of a picture naming task and were collected 3 times a week. Baseline duration was randomized and lasted 1 or 2 weeks. Rehabilitation with the eCALAP lasted 3 weeks with 3 rehabilitation sessions per week. For contrasting baseline and rehabilitation performance, statistical analyses were performed according to SCED guidelines. Visual analysis included mean baseline values and a 2-SD envelope post-intervention. Tau-U and Nonoverlap of All Pairs (NAP) analyses were conducted.

All PWA were able to complete the entire protocol. The rehabilitation program was effective for four out of the five participants. Tau-U values ranged from 0.44 to 0.72 (p<.05), indicating large effect sizes and strong trends in performance improvement. These results are further supported by the NAP values, which were consistently high, suggesting that the intervention led to substantial changes in the repeated measures as compared to the baseline period.

The results of this study provide promising evidence for the effectiveness of the eCALAP rehabilitation program. Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Clinical Trial NCT06817642 Funding Statement This study was funded by ANR-17-EURE-0017; ANR-10-IDEX-0001-02; l'Agence Regionale de Sante: 2023_IO_105_eCALAP; Universite Paris-Est Creteil Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: Ethics committee/IRB of Universite Paris-Cite gave ethical approval for this work (IRB: 00012024-71) Ethics committee/IRB of Assistance Publique des Hopitaux de Paris gave ethical approval for this work (IDRCB: 2022-A00489-34) I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes Data Availability All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors.