While browsing through the list of program sessions at the upcoming
ASHA conference being held in a couple of weeks in Atlanta, I noticed quite a number of sessions on aphasia. I guess that's not really surprising considering that approximately 1 million people in the US today suffer from aphasia and it's estimated that 25% of SLP's regularly treat patients with aphasia. As you probably know, aphasia is mostly the result of brain damage and stroke,and affects language in a number of ways including the production and comprehension of speech, as well as the ability to read or write. Treatment for aphasia is very much based on the individual patient, as there is a great variety in severity and can affect only certain aspects of language, although usually, multiple aspects of communication are impaired.
One interesting option for SLPs is the development of mentoring
programs to improve social language for patients who suffer from this disorder. If you're interested in learning more you may want to check out the following links. The first short article published in the "ASHA Leader" highlights the benefits of mentoring programs where patients are teamed up to provide encouragement and practice for each other. The second article is a research study from the journal "Stroke" discussing the outcome improvements that result from these kind of programs.
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