Cognitive Oriented Strategy Training Augmented Rehabilitation (COSTAR) Treatment Approach for Stroke

Stroke is the most serious disabling condition in the United States and the developed world. Novel stroke rehabilitation approaches, such as task-specific training, have shown promise in improving an individual's recovery in the rehabilitation setting; however, evidence suggests that these improvements are not generalized or transferred to the home, community, or work settings. Thus, these interventions usually do not impact overall health and participation outcomes. This research study seeks to improve task-specific training as a stroke rehabilitation approach by integrating it with evidence-based cognitive-oriented strategies which have shown great promise as a way to address the limitations of task-specific training. The new treatment protocol is called Cognitive-Oriented Strategy Training Augmented Rehabilitation, or COSTAR. The hypothesis of this study is that COSTAR will result in more efficient functional skill acquisition, better long-term retention of skills learned, and generalization and transfer of skills learned to home, community, and work settings.