LE3 .A278 2023

2023

Champod, Anne Sophie

Acadia University

Bachelor of Science

Honours

Psychology

Psychology

Background. Spatial neglect is an attentional disorder characterized by an inability to orient or respond to stimuli on the left side of space following right hemispheric stroke. Prism adaptation (PA) is a promising experimental treatment for spatial neglect, but there are barriers to its clinical implementation. Peg-the-Mole (PTM) is a home-friendly PA treatment that was developed to address the lack of user engagement in the development of rehabilitation protocols. The current study was the first to examine the experience of healthy older adults using a home-based PTM protocol with the goal of incorporating their feedback prior to its clinical implementation. Method. Ten healthy older adults were randomly assigned to use PTM with either 5-degree or 15-degree prism goggles in their homes during four sessions taking place over four to five days. Following the final PTM session, an exit questionnaire was administered to explore the participants’ experiences with the PTM protocol. Content analysis was used to code participants’ responses and identify meaningful themes. Results. Participants found PTM to be an engaging procedure with instructions that were easy to follow. Several key issues were identified, including the instability of the iPad, the length of the procedure, and the speed of the target presentation. Implications. Several modifications were made to the PTM procedure to address the problems identified by participants. This study adds to the limited literature on the users’ experiences with cognitive rehabilitation tools and encourages the future inclusion of patients’ feedback as an integral part of the development of rehabilitation treatments.

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:4031