Millions of people across the country live with aphasia—more than 100,000 people diagnosed with aphasia every year. In recognition of Aphasia Awareness Month, we’re providing you with some new ideas and resources to help you provide the best care possible.
Aphasia-Friendly Adaptations
Development of the Fatigue Interference and Severity Scale for Aphasia: Communication challenges lead to poststroke fatigue being underdiagnosed in people with aphasia, leading to less support for these individuals. The authors of this study modified the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) to be more aphasia-friendly by including visual aids and explicit instructions to help accurately capture fatigue in this population. The name of the modified study is the Fatigue Interference and Severity Scale for Aphasia (FISS-A).
A Practical Guide to Translating Scientific Publications Into Aphasia-Friendly Summaries: Aphasia research is largely inaccessible to the people it effects the most—people with aphasia and their loved ones. Learn about how aphasia-friendly research summaries can help increase partnerships between researchers, clinicians, and people with aphasia.
New Ideas and Communication Partner Training
Addressing Phonological Deficit in Primary Progressive Aphasia With Behavioral Intervention and Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation: Learn about a novel treatment approach for individuals with primary progressive aphasia that combines speech therapy with noninvasive electrical stimulation of the brain. The authors found compelling evidence that this combination of treatments could improve skills relevant to everyday life—skills such as text-level writing in people with aphasia.
Is Communication Training for Significant Others a Reasonable Rehabilitation Goal in Aphasia Therapy? Although most SLPs include some aspect of communication partner training in aphasia treatment, they rarely address this in their documentation. In the interests of accountability and transparency, this article provides resources to help capture this training in your documentation.
Telepractice in Aphasia
Effects of Modified Video-Implemented Script Training for Aphasia in the Three Variants of Primary Progressive Aphasia: People with aphasia can use script training—the repeating of scripted content—to help promote automated and fluent speech. Read about the accessibility, feasibility, and effectiveness of providing script training via telepractice.
Testing Feasibility of a Self-Administered Hearing Test for Patients With Progressive Apraxia of Speech and Aphasia: Hearing loss is relatively common in older adults, including those with aphasia. Researchers showed that people with aphasia could complete home hearing screenings and recommended hearing screening in all individuals with aphasia.
More Aphasia Resources
Aphasia is a popular topic across ASHA’s journals. If you’re looking for clinically relevant articles on aphasia, check out our Special Issue of AJSLP published in December 2024 containing 18 articles.
If you’re looking for something more specific, check out our topic collection for more than 1,000 articles on aphasia—or use advanced search to find exactly what you’re looking for. With new aphasia research being published across ASHA’s journals all the time, we’re sure we have something for you! We’re so proud of our ASHA members and the important services they provide for people with aphasia and their families. With so much aphasia content in ASHA Journals, you can celebrate Aphasia Awareness Month all year round!
