Journal Reviews
A song for my future self
People with aphasia experience a loss of friendships and social networks and, with this, a loss of identity. Interventions targeting participation, social and emotional wellbeing for people with aphasia have received more attention in the research literature. Storytelling is a...
Doing it for yourself: self-management in speech and language therapy
People with stroke aphasia are traditionally discharged from speech and language therapy when they have plateaued; meaning they are making no further progress in language recovery. This service model has been problematic, leading to people being discharged when they are...
Is it really working? Assessment versus real-life language measures
Research in the field of language treatment and rehabilitation to date has used single-word naming as a controlled measure of outcome. Yet, given people do not actually communicate in single words, there is much debate as to whether this approach...
Quick and valid: a new measure of aphasia
Aphasia can be caused by a stroke, brain injury or dementia. It is defined as a language disorder that impacts the domains of speaking, understanding, reading and writing. Given the impact on quality of life and conversation, there is a...
Students on camp
This article describes a three-day weekend camp for individuals with chronic aphasia and their care partners, designed to address personally relevant activities and conversations that help redevelop self-worth, confidence, and identity. The aim is to support carryover into individuals’ local...
Bright young things: executive functioning in younger, older and aphasic people
Executive function comprises several higher order cognitive processes such as planning, organisation, adaptation, maintenance, monitoring and decision making. It is thought that difficulties in cognitive flexibility in people with aphasia are associated with difficulties in executive function rather than the...
Humour to improve clinician - patient interactions
This study examined the role of humour employed by the speech language graduate student during their one-on-one therapy sessions with people with aphasia (PWA). The students used humour to soften the errors made by the clients; to equalise interactional power;...
People with dementia and their families want to see speech and language therapists!
Language and communication difficulties are common in Alzheimer’s disease and, of course, language-led dementia (primary progressive aphasia). Communication difficulties are highlighted as one of the biggest burdens for family members caring for loved ones with dementia. This is often associated...
Online group therapy is easier but is it better?
Aphasia is a communication disability caused by stroke, brain injury or dementia. People with aphasia benefit from both the emotional and communication support that group therapy can provide, yet there can be many barriers to accessing this type of intervention,...
Does talking better make you feel better?
Interaction-focused therapy for people with language impairment (aphasia) following a stroke or brain injury is routinely used by speech and language therapists in clinical practice. These types of interventions are based on research into the organisation of interactions and interactional...
Do you know what aphasia is?
In 2001 a survey was conducted in a number of towns across the world, including Exeter in the UK, to identify the level of awareness and knowledge of aphasia in the community. Aphasia is difficulty in producing or understanding language...
We all need to support the human rights of people with communication difficulties
This article starts by reminding us of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations, 1948) of which article 19 stated: ‘‘Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference...
