The CogNeuro App: A Novel Web-Based App for Neuropsychological Assessment of Impairments of Language

The CogNeuro App: A Novel Web-Based App for Neuropsychological Assessment of Impairments of Language

This project proposes a web-based interactive clinical and teaching app, the CogNeuroApp. Students, clinicians and clinical educators can use this tool to identify which component(s) of the language system are malfunctioning. The CogNeuroApp facilitates the diagnoses of multi-faceted patterns of language impairments. It allows in particular speech pathology students to make mistakes without consequence before meeting their first real client on placement.

In co-design workshops, surveys and interviews, students, clinical educators and clinicians will be involved as partners informing design, clarity, and functionality of the CogNeuroApp. This app stimulates active learning and implements a different learning and teaching approach to the way cognitive neuropsychological assessment has been traditionally taught. In addition, it offers a tool for assessment and treatment planning to clinicians.

The team has the privilege to have Emeritus Professor Max Coltheart on board (co-author of PALPA1, the language assessment model all speech pathology curricula in Australia use and upon which the CogNeuroApp will be based). They are joined by a long-standing industry partner, senior software engineer Steven Saunders, with whom both Coltheart and Biedermann have successfully collaborated previously2,3. Curtin Investigators Biedermann, Hersh and Hill are experts in aphasiology with clinical and teaching experience in cognitive language assessments. Hersh & Coltheart will serve as mentors on this project, while Hill is an Early Career Researcher on this project, with special expertise in co-design principles.

The outcome of this project will be a co-designed interactive clinical and teaching app that can be used in clinical settings and speech pathology curricula.  It can be promoted freely to other educational institutions, nationally and internationally.   It will also be a useful tool for students, clinical educators and clinicians in a range of language rehabilitation settings. The project commences Sep 1st, 2022 and will be finalised end of December, 2024.”