A group of people came together to create three video games aimed at helping people with aphasia restore language. Aphasia Games for Health pairs gorgeous visuals with helpful exercises, bringing together the expertise of game designers, speech-language pathologists, and members of the aphasia community.
It’s a “collaborative effort by the Aphasia Recovery Connection, the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, and Thorny Games to fight social isolation and language loss. Building a gaming community for people with aphasia by supporting the development of games for recovery, providing resources for designers, and making aphasia friendly games accessible.”
There are currently three games that can be downloaded for free on the site.
The Minister’s Cat, Audition, and Do You See What I See are all games you can play at home to practice speech.
Speech therapy can be difficult, and gamifying language practice infuses a little fun in the process. The nicest part about the games is that they are easy to play with other people online or in the home. We will be playing one of the games in a future Aphasia Cafe chat, and we hope that you’ll join us. You can view one of the games being played in this video.
Additionally, they have a newsletter (scroll to the bottom of their site) you can sign up for so you can be notified about future game releases.