Renegotiation of Self after a Brain Injury Using Immersive Virtual Environments: A Contribution to Technology-mediated Speech Therapy

This thesis is about using immersive virtual environments in the rehabilitation of persons suffering from aphasia. More specific, it is about how acting through a virtual representation, a so-called avatar, might contribute to renegotiation of identity and regaining lost communicative competencies after a brain injury.
With roots in a social-cultural understanding of learning and rehabilitation, Ulla Konnerup demonstrates how avatar-mediated rehabilitation offers new possibilities in the communicative rehabilitation. Learning and communication through shared experiences and narratives, joint repertoires, joint culture and heritage, have been shown to be fruitful triggers of memory and word- mobilising for persons with aphasia and renegotiation of self. Furthermore, avatar-mediated embodied cognition strengthens conceptualisation and relearning language. The results build on a case study with data collected in relation to two pilot courses in an immersive virtual environment, Second Life. The first course is a pedagogical course for speech therapists, the other a rehabilitation course for persons suffering from aphasia. The courses were conducted by speech therapists at The Institute for Speech, Language, and Brain Disorders in Aalborg, DK in 2011-2014.
The approach is qualitative and phenomenological with an intention to give persons with aphasia a voice.