Special Symposium

#299022 – Intensity in Aphasia Rehabilitation: Contrasting Perspectives From Neuroscience and Cognitive Psychology

THUR 26 OCT // 1:45 PM – 3:00 PM

 

Want More? Check out Dr. Leora Cherney’s Award Lecture >>>

 

PRESENTERS

Anastasia M. Raymer, PhD, CCC-SLP
Professor & Chair
Old Dominion University

Amy D. Rodriguez, PhD, CCC-SLP
Research Associate
Atlanta VA Medical Center

Leora R. Cherney, PhD, CCC-SLP, BC-ANCDS
Coleman Foundation Chair and Scientific Chair, Think and Speak Lab
Shirley Ryan AbilityLab

 

FOCUS AREAS

Neuroplasticity, Stroke

 

DESCRIPTION

Aphasia is one of the most debilitating conditions resulting from stroke. Although treatment is beneficial, most people with aphasia are left with residual language deficits that impact their quality of life. In this session, the presenter draws on examples from her own research to illustrate some of the trends in aphasia treatment research that have occurred over the past two decades. These include shifts in treatment research design from single subject studies to randomized clinical trials; the testing of novel treatment approaches including adjuvants such as non-invasive brain stimulation; a change in focus from efficacy to better understanding the therapeutic process and the variables that influence outcomes; and selection of outcome measures from observable impairment measures to functional/social self-report measures.

 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Describe methodological shifts in aphasia treatment research from single subject design to randomized clinical trials
2. Discuss changes in selection of outcome measures from observable impairment measures to functional/social self-report measures
3. Identify variables that can be manipulated during aphasia therapy to improve treatment outcomes

 

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS

Anastasia Raymer, PhD, CCC-SLP, is Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication Disorders & Special Education at Old Dominion University (B.S.Ed. Communication Disorders, University of Wisconsin; M.A. and Ph.D. in Speech Pathology, University of Florida). Her research examines means to optimize rehabilitation of aphasia, limb apraxia, and agraphia. Her work has been supported by the NIH (NIDCD) and the Dept. of Defense. She has published more than 75 papers and chapters and has given hundreds of talks on her research. She is past president of the Academy of Neurologic Communication Disorders and Sciences, past coordinator of Special Interest Group 2: Neurophysiology and Neurologic Communication Disorders, and a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

Dr. Amy Rodriguez is a Research Associate in the Center for Visual and Neurocognitive Rehabilitation at the Atlanta VA Medical Center. She received her Ph.D. in Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Florida. Dr. Rodriguez completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Queensland in Australia. Her research has examined methods to optimize rehabilitation of aphasia and aprosodia following stroke using principles of neuroplasticity. She has published and presented her work extensively in national and international venues.

Leora R. Cherney, PhD, is Scientific Chair of the Think & Speak Lab at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab (formerly the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago) and Professor of both Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and Communication Sciences & Disorders at Northwestern University. She has had more than 35 years of clinical experience working with adults with neurogenic communication disorders. She founded and presently directs the Center for Aphasia Research and Treatment at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. Dr. Cherney is board-certified in neurologic communication disorders by the Academy of Neurologic Communication Disorders and Sciences (ANCDS) and a Fellow of both the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and the Illinois Speech-Language Hearing Association. She has co-authored four books and has over 90 publications in refereed journals, textbooks, and other periodicals. She regularly presents at workshops and conferences nationally. Dr. Cherney’s research interests, which have been federally funded for over 20 years, have focused on treatment approaches for aphasia and on attention and discourse problems in adults with cognitive-communication disorders.

 

---