When an individual sustains brain damage from a stroke, a head injury, or other neurologic diseases, determining if they can return home is a critical process for maintaining independence. A crucial element lies in whether they will be able to complete daily activities, from doing laundry to hosting a dinner, safely.

With the use of virtual reality (VR), a research team composed of Illinois State faculty Dr. Jennine Harvey-Northrop, associate professor in communication sciences and disorders; Dr. Issac Chang, associate professor of technology; and Dr. Gabriela Fonseca Pereira, associate professor of interior design, as well as Dr. Megan Cuellar, professor in communication sciences and disorders at Piedmont University, aims to utilize a virtual environment to investigate the efficacy of VR as a rehabilitative intervention tool that may promote a safe return home. Each interdisciplinary collaborator views the environment through a unique lens, offering a final product that provides an individualized, multifaceted experience for participants. Cognitive and language rehabilitation within a virtual home environment may provide greater outcomes of safely and independently staying in one’s home for as long as possible.

The research team has developed a virtual environment, and protocols meant to target rehabilitation efforts that are applicable to typical tasks that take place in the home. As a participant enters the virtual space, they are transported to a virtual kitchen that the interdisciplinary team has designed.

When the participant walks around the physical room that they are located in, the VR headset immerses the participant, feeling like they are walking around and interacting with the kitchen. This kitchen, while not identical to the user’s kitchen at home, still contains the components found in a typical kitchen and functions the same way a kitchen might. One may notice appliances such as the fridge and the stove, cabinets that open to reveal food, and even a clock on the wall that tells the current time.

By providing rehabilitative intervention tasks in this kitchen space, speech-language pathology professionals can focus on having a participant complete activities of daily living (ADLs), which are tasks such as preparing food or washing dishes. Researchers are investigating whether difficulties in demonstrating the cognitive and language abilities needed to carry out ADLs in a virtual environment may suggest a risk for safety concerns, such as injury while cooking, while completing the same ADLs in a real-world home environment. Furthermore, the inability to complete language tasks can increase safety risks if functional communication, like expressing urgent needs and feelings. The versatility and practicality of the kitchen environment allows for rehabilitative efforts to take place in a familiar space, promoting carry-over of progress into a real home, keeping individuals in their homes independently for as long as possible.

This spring, the team is preparing to run two clinical research protocols in the virtual environment. Both rehabilitation protocols are designed for persons with aphasia, mild cognitive impairment, traumatic brain injury, dementia, or individuals experiencing the typical impacts of aging. The first protocol will be centered on word-finding, stimulating memory, and language skills. The second protocol will focus on problem-solving, targeting skills such as organization, sequencing, and cognitive flexibility to provide rehabilitative treatment surrounding cognition and executive functioning in particular.

Source: https://news.illinoisstate.edu/2025/11/smart-speech-therapy-virtual-reality-environments-for-independent-aging/