Reclaiming Expressive Knowledge in Elders With Alzheimer’s Disease (REKNEW)
REKNEW PROJECTS
The REKNEW projects, conducted in conjunction with the The Layton Center for Aging and Alzheimer's Research within the OHSU Department of Neurology, are researching the use of personalized communication menus incorporating pictures written words, or small objects to help patients to access words.
REKNEW - Alzheimer's Disease - AD
REKNEW - Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's Disease)ALS
Reclaiming Expressive Knowledge in Elders With Alzheimer’s Disease (REKNEW) Improving Communication for People with Alzheimer's Disease
Research question: do communication devices that help younger people with congenital or acquired communication disorders to communicate also help older people who have moderate dementia associated with Alzheimer’s Disease?
Funding:
from U.S. Department of Education (external link) and National Institutes of Health (external link).
Participants:
people with moderate dementia associated with Alzheimer’s Disease who are losing their ability to communicate.
Impact:
we hope that by the end of the projects we will show that communication devices DO help people with Alzheimer’s Disease and we will tell people how to use these devices.
Evaluation:
we talk to people with and without communication devices and videotape the conversations. Then we look at the videotapes to see whether they communicate better with the communication devices.
Public Awareness:
we work with the Layton Center for Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease Research.
Community participation:
people with Alzheimer’s Disease in the Portland area and their family members are participating in our project.
Reclaiming Expressive Knowledge in Persons With Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's Disease)
Persons with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis rely on augmentative communication when they can no longer write or speak functionally. Dr. Fried-Oken and AAC colleagues collaborate on projects to improve quality of life for the AAC users.
Reclaiming Expressive Knowledge in Persons With Dysarthria
Dr. Fried-Oken conducts research and development projects in collaboration with the Center for Spoken Language Understanding (external link) in the OHSU School of Science and Engineering. She collaborates with Dr. Jan van Santen on speech synthesis (external link) and recognition projects related to dysarthria.
Contacts:
Dr. Melanie Fried Oken 503-494-7587
Dr. Charity Rowland 503-494-2263
