FOR PROFESSIONALS
WellPeer delivers innovative and evidence-based, technology-enabled, peer-support based wellness and fitness programs to prevent stroke survivor re-admissions over their post-stroke lifetime.
WellPeer programs are proven to enable individuals with disabilities to succeed where they otherwise might not in mainstream wellness and fitness programs.
About Stroke Survivor Fitness
Stroke Survivor Fitness is a wellness and fitness program that offers stroke survivors a path to a longer and more rewarding life by helping them be physically fit, socially engaged, and mentally healthy - all of which makes them less likely to suffer devastating recurring strokes.
Finding the right exercise formula can be a challenge. Standard fitness options designed for normally-abled people may not accommodate a survivor’s specific physical, neural and emotional challenges. Our programs are designed to fit these individual needs.
AMERICAN HEART AND STROKE ASSOCIATION RECOMMEND EXERCISE
In May of 2014 the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association published recommendations that physicians prescribe exercise to stroke survivors.
“Physical inactivity after stroke is highly prevalent. The assessed body of evidence clearly supports the use of exercise training (both aerobic and strength training) for stroke survivors. Exercise training improves functional capacity, the ability to perform activities of daily living, and quality of life, and it reduces the risk for subsequent cardiovascular events. Physical activity goals and exercise prescriptions for stroke survivors need to be customized for the individual to maximize long-term adherence. ”
© 2014 American Heart Association, Inc.
About Work Out Your Words
The Work Out Your Words approach synchronizes physical movement and exercise with corresponding appropriate production of language. Within the field of communication science there is a body of evidence that supports pairing gestures with language retrieval tasks in individuals with aphasia. The general agreement is that pairing a gesture with attempts at word retrieval facilitates the language production. There is also substantial literature related to the benefit of using music or melodic intonation as a treatment for aphasia. However, very little evidence exists as to the efficacy of integrating language into a structured fitness program. In fact, there are few, if any, fitness programs in existence that combine movement with language production for people with aphasia.
Research findings were presented at the ASHA National Convention November 2016:
Presentation: Synchronizing Language and Mobility: How and Why it Works
This presentation informed the participants about a unique program for individuals with aphasia that synchronizes language tasks with mobility tasks, providing examples of basic cognitive/linguistic tasks that can be combined with exercises and the recorded and reported outcomes from an existing model program.
Poster session: Effects of synchronizing language and mobility in individuals with aphasia
The purpose of this study was to investigate how simultaneously using language while walking places an additional burden on the production of language and to describe the differences in ability to walk and talk in a population of individuals with aphasia who routinely practice this skill in an exercise class designed to synchronize movement and language compared with individuals with aphasia who do not routinely practice this skill.
Contact us for complete research findings and presentation materials.