Jerry Hoepner, a faculty member in the department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire, speaks with Tavistock Scholar Dr. Brent Archer about the crossroads between the lived experience and qualitative research methods.

Dr. Brent E. Archer was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. He obtained his Master’s degree in speech-language pathology (SLP) in 2006, and practiced in rural hospitals and schools. After immigrating to the US in 2011, he provided SLP services in nursing homes located in central New York state and Louisiana. In 2012, he enrolled in the Applied Speech and Language Sciences doctoral program at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette. Upon graduating in 2016, he assumed a position as an Assistant Professor in Communication Disorders and Sciences at Bowling Green State University. Brent’s research interests include facilitated conversations for people with aphasia, the lived experiences of people and families living with aphasia and life participation approaches to treating aphasia.

In today’s episode you will:

• Learn about applications of qualitative research methodologies towards the Life Participation Approach to Aphasia.
• • Consider how we may best examine client values and perspectives.
  • Consider how we may support and reveal the perspectives of individuals with aphasia in guiding the research questions we ask.
  • Consider how qualitative methods like interpretive phenomenological analysis, ethnography, and conversation analysis may help researchers to uncover the lived experience of people with aphasia and their families.
  • Consider how information about the lived experience can help clinicians to better meet the needs of people with aphasia.
  • Hear examples of how community-based programming, such as training docents at the Toledo Museum of Art to provide aphasia-friendly tours, a program that Brent is involved with, can be a mutual platform for meaningful life participation (meeting an authentic need) and research in an authentic environment.
  • Consider opportunities to examine and support the recreational needs and desires of people with aphasia.
  • Consider roles that people with aphasia can play in their own groups and recovery process.

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Dr. Janet Patterson, Chief of the Audiology & Speech-Language Pathology Service at VA Northern California Health Care System, speaks with Dr. Katie Strong about the value of stories in the lives of people with aphasia as they think about who they were before aphasia, who they are now, and who they will become in the future.

Dr. Strong is an Assistant Professor at Central Michigan University in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, and by the way, my colleague on the Aphasia Access Podversation team. Katie received her Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences from Western Michigan University in 2015 and at CMU she leads the Strong Story Lab. Her research explores how speech-language pathologists can support people with aphasia as they rebuild their identities and improve their quality of life by co-constructing stories about who they are and will become. Dr. Strong is a 2019 Tavistock Distinguished Aphasia Scholar. She is a founding member of the Lansing Area Aphasia Support Group, and currently serves as a Regional Director for A Bigger BRIDGE, a project dedicated to helping those with communication disabilities engage in research that is about them.

In today’s episode we will discuss:

• The Tavistock Distinguished Scholar Award
• Aphasia Access
• Katie Strong’s story
• Using stories as a way to connect with people with aphasia

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Ellen Bernstein-Ellis, Director of the Aphasia Treatment Program (ATP) at Cal State East Bay in the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences and a member of the Aphasia Access Podcast Working Group, speaks with 2019 Tavistock Scholar Dr. Sharon Antonucci from Moss Rehabilitation Center about her work involving semantic feature analysis within a group context, and a pet project, pun intended, involving her pilot research with animal assisted therapy and its connection to the Life Participation Approach to Aphasia, the LPAA model.

Dr. Sharon Antonucci is the Director of the Moss Rehabilitation Aphasia Center in Philadelphia, PA. She is a clinical researcher who has been working with those with aphasia and their families since 2001. Her work in aphasia rehabilitation integrates principles of cognitive neuropsychology, with those of the Life Participation Approach to Aphasia. She directs research in the assessment and treatment of lexical retrieval impairment in aphasia, outcome measurement for group aphasia treatment, and animal assisted treatment for people with aphasia, or work has been funded by the NIH, ASHA, and the American Speech Language Hearing Foundation. And she was one of four inaugural recipients of the Tavistock Trust for Aphasia Distinguished Scholar Award.

In today’s episode you will learn:

• Learn strategies for introducing SFA into a group setting
• Learn the difference between Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) and Animal Assisted Activity (AAA)
• Learn what factors make an individual with aphasia and his/her dog good candidates for an obedience training partnership
• Learn potential benefits to participating in a program that targets teaching your dog new skills

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Janet Patterson, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, Chief of the Audiology & Speech-Language Pathology Service at VA Northern California, speaks with Will Evans, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, about Aphasia Games for Health, a project at the intersection of aphasia rehabilitation, adaptation deficit, gaming design, and community connectivity.

Dr. Evans is an assistant professor and aphasia rehabilitation researcher in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Pittsburgh. In 2020 Will was named a Tavistock Trust for Aphasia Distinguished Scholar, USA.

Will is spearheading a new project, Aphasia Games for Health, which is a collaborative effort among members of the aphasia community, professional game designers, and aphasia rehabilitation researchers. Together, they are seeking to 1) develop therapeutic games to help people with aphasia to continue to improve and connect long-term, and 2) help build and empower a broader aphasia games movement by providing resources for community groups, clinicians, and professional game designers to make games more aphasia friendly and accessible.  This summer Will and his team are working on three prototype group aphasia card games that can be played in person or through group video chat, and which will be shared with the community for free through a creative commons license. Once their first prototype games are developed, they will be looking for people with aphasia and community groups to do playtesting, which is trying out the games and providing feedback to the team to improve the games.

In today’s episode you will learn:

• about adaptation deficit, and how games can be used to support behavioral adaptation
• how games developed for use in video chat format can help persons with aphasia interact in each other’s space to create rich communication context
• how a team of aphasia rehabilitation experts, people with aphasia, and professional game developers are working to build the vision of an Aphasia Game Library

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During this episode, Dr. Katie Strong, Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Central Michigan University talks with Michelle Armour from the Northwestern Medicine Aphasia Center at Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital about starting this program and creating a training program for healthcare workers to be better communication partners for people with aphasia..

Michelle Armour is a Speech-Language Pathologist, Master Clinician, and Program Lead Clinician of the Northwestern Medicine Aphasia Center at Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital in Wheaton, IL. She specializes in stroke rehabilitation with specific areas of focus on aphasia and apraxia. She has presented her work at the national level and is currently serving as co-chair on the Aphasia and Other Communication Disorders Task Force through the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM) Stroke iSIG Committee. Michelle and her team were awarded the first Northwestern Medicine Innovation Grant made possible by Superior Ambulance Services to initiate the Northwestern Medicine Aphasia Center at Marianjoy.

In this episode you will:

• Learn about how a clinician wrote and won a grant competition that allowed for the development of an aphasia center
• Hear how listening to a patient’s story about her experience in the hospital inspired and led to the development of an online communication partner training for hospital staff
• Learn about how an interdisciplinary team used the Integrated Behavioral Model to develop the online communication partner training program.

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Welcome to the Aphasia Access Conversations Podcast. I’m Jerry Hoepner, a faculty member in the department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire. I am privileged to introduce today’s guest Jamie Azios.

GUEST BIO:

Dr. Jamie Azios is an Assistant Professor at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. She is also a 2019 recipient of Tavistock Trust for Aphasia Distinguished Scholar. Jamie has expertise in qualitative research methodologies. Her research focuses on co-construction of conversation in aphasia and therapeutic interactions between providers and individuals with aphasia. Her recent work on social interactions of individuals with aphasia in long term care contexts.

In today’s episode you will:

• Learn about common barriers to social interactions for persons with aphasia living in long-term care settings.
• • Specifically, there is often a hyper-focus on care tasks which can get in the way of getting to know the person with aphasia during those interactions.
• Learn about the typical type of interactions that take place in long-term care settings.
• Reminder to focus on training partners – CNAs, nurses, other staff, visitors, family members, and everyday partners.
• Reminder to modify the physical environment to support persons with aphasia.
• Learn about ethnographic, qualitative research, where the researcher is embedded in the environment as they make their observations.
• • Hear stories and examples of those deep, close observations.
• Reminder about the need to educate caregivers, family, and friends about aphasia.
• Reminder about the need to advocate for persons with aphasia.
• Learn about using key words to help scaffold comprehension for persons with aphasia and as a written support to point to during conversation.
• Reminder to use gestures as a multimodal support that also helps comprehension but also serves as a model for supporting expression.
• Consider your proximity and position in relation to persons with aphasia – get on the same level!
• Learn ideas about how to reduce social isolation in long-term care settings and beyond.

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Ellen Bernstein-Ellis, Director of the Aphasia Treatment Program at Cal State East Bay, speaks with Judy Walker of the University of Maine about how we can use technology to improve the lives of individuals with aphasia, and how telepractice can promote the values of the life participation approach.

Dr. Judy Walker is an associate professor and coordinator of the University of Maine speech therapy telepractice program. Her academic and research interests include speech therapy, telepractice, neuro linguistics and cognitive neuroscience. Dr. Walker established the University of Maine speech therapy telepractice program whose mission encompasses graduate student telepractice clinical training while providing speech therapy telepractice services to children and adults throughout Maine and at an international school in Fiji.

In addition to coordinating this program, she provides clinical supervision to graduate students in the speech therapy telepractice practicum and teaches graduate courses in traumatic brain injury aphasia, right hemisphere damage and dementia. Her research focuses on improving the quality of life of people with aphasia and their caregivers through participation in synchronous telepractice groups. She consults with numerous academic programs and agencies who are interested in setting and starting a telepractice program. Dr. Walker has numerous presentations and scholarly articles related to the speech therapy telepractice service delivery model. 

Listener Take-aways:

In today’s episode you will: • Gain an overview of the University of Maine’s telepractice program that has been providing individual and group therapy since 2012. • Learn why telepractice is suited to supporting LPAA goals. • Learn about how telepractice can capitalize on the home context, including a live tour to meet the family farm animals.  • Hear how Google Earth can help you provide patient-centered care during telepractice • Consider how telepractice provides an opportunity to reduce social isolation and increase friendships. • Learn about the steps that help student clinicians progress from the bunny slope to the advanced slope on the telepractice landscape. 

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During this episode, Jerry Hoepner, a faculty member in the department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire, speaks with Wayne Zorn, CeCelia Zorn, and their speech-language pathologist Tania Riske, about primary progressive aphasia. They also discuss the trio’s article, “Three Voices at the Table.”

Wayne Zorn is a man of many dimensions. As others discover who he is, they find a person with a giving heart, a curious, precise, and engineering mind, and a fun-loving soul. CeCelia and Wayne met in high school in rural northeastern Wisconsin. Married for 45 years, CeCelia brings a threefold background to our discussion about PPA. CeCelia strives for a life enriched by kindness, joy, perseverance, curiosity, patience, and collaboration. Tania Riske is a speech-language pathologist at Mayo Health Systems – Eau Claire. She initially entered the speech language pathology field through her volunteer work with the Chippewa Valley Aphasia Group and graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire Communication Sciences and Disorders Program. Tania continues to enjoy treating patients with aphasia and their families within the LPAA Paradigm.

In this episode you will:

• Learn about living successfully with primary progressive aphasia (PPA) from an individual with PPA, his partner, and their speech-language pathologist.
• Learn about examples of participating in personally relevant activities like singing, travel, and golfing – along with what it takes for this to happen through collaborations between an individual with PPA, his partner, and their speech-language pathologist.
• Learn about following the lead of the individual with PPA and his partner as context and vehicle for authentic, person-focused interventions.
• Learn how this trio implemented collaborative interventions and authentic steps they took in that process.
• Learn about how to engage community partners in meaningful, participation-based collaborations.
• Learn about the challenges this couple has encountered and the positive way they have addressed those challenges.

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During this episode, Dr. Katie Strong, Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Central Michigan University talks with Dr. Hsinhuei Sheen Chiou from Minnesota State University, Mankato about metacognitive instruction and goal attainment scaling for people with aphasia and clinical education.

Dr. H. Sheen Chiou, Ph.D. CCC-SLP is a full professor in the Department of Speech, Hearing and Rehabilitation Services at Minnesota State University, Mankato. She teaches courses in adult neurogenic disorders including aphasia and acquired cognitive disorders and runs language and cognitive rehabilitation research. Her current research and clinical practice focus on patient-centered language and cognitive intervention for people with brain injuries (stroke, traumatic brain injury, neurodegenerative disorders) and meaningful engagements for people with dementia and their care partners. She leads an aphasia conversation group for Minnesota Connect Aphasia Now in Minnesota. 

In this episode you will:

• Learn about metacognitive strategy instruction and goal attainment scaling
• Hear about how metacognitive strategy instruction and goal attainment scaling have been used with people with aphasia and in the training graduate students in working with people with aphasia
• Hear the importance of training LPAA practitioners who can apply LPAA to support clients with aphasia across the globe
• Learn about applying LPAA principles to supporting people with dementia and the Garden EngAGEment program

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Ellen Bernstein-Ellis, Director of the Aphasia Treatment Program at Cal State East Bay speaks with Megan Sutton about how to empower individuals with aphasia to engage with home practice goals and how incorporating apps may enhance practice opportunities.

Megan Sutton is a speech-language pathologist and the co-founder of Tactus Therapy Solutions, an app development company that creates popular aphasia therapy apps. She has designed 20 apps for adult speech pathology, including the best-selling Language Therapy 4-in-1. Megan has over 15 years of experience working with people with aphasia in a variety of clinical settings including acute care, inpatient and outpatient rehab, and an intensive aphasia treatment program. She is the co-author of the stroke recovery book entitled Healing the Broken Brain and is an international speaker on the topic of using technology in aphasia therapy.

Megan lives near Vancouver, Canada where she regularly helps with the Sea to Sky Aphasia Camp and is on the clinical faculty of the University of British Columbia. She is a member of Aphasia Access and a volunteer with the Aphasia Recovery Connection.

In today’s episode you will:

• Learn why you should consider attending the next Aphasia Access Leadership Summit
• Hear a common misconception about LPAA and learn how addressing impairment is considered one of the four basic domains of the A-FROM
• Learn how personalization with apps is key to making home practice more person-centered.
• Consider the critical elements that contribute to creating a meaningful home program for a client.
• Hear a moving message from families regarding their experience at home coping with aphasia.

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