For decades, the month of May has given you—ASHA members—an opportunity to celebrate the impact of the services you provide. During National Speech-Language-Hearing Month, ASHA shares information and resources on emerging and popular issues in communication sciences and disorders—issues that affect millions of Americans.
This week, we’re focusing on a key topic of this year’s National Speech-Language-Hearing Month: supporting care partners who work with adults. Below, we highlight ways that you can include adult caregivers in your work and support them as they continue to help their loved ones.
Working With Aphasia Care Partners
Clinical Effectiveness of the Comprehensive, High-Dose Aphasia Treatment Program for People With Poststroke Aphasia: Studies have shown that high-dose aphasia treatment programs can significantly reduce care partner strain, but these programs have yet to be introduced in health care service. Learn how this program can be delivered in a public health setting—an approach that gives more people with aphasia and their loved ones information about and access to this treatment.
Caregiving Burden and Depressive Symptoms in Aphasia Caregivers: The Moderating Role of Friendship Support: Care partners of adults with aphasia experience caregiver burden, which may lead to depression. The authors of this article found that the support of friends could help lessen depression in these individuals, suggesting that friendship support be integrated into family-centered aphasia rehabilitation.
A Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats Analysis of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Aphasia Management With Proposed Ethical Guidelines: Generative artificial intelligence (AI) may be able to provide care partners with much-needed information and support. Understanding the weaknesses and threats of relying on generative AI can help us use this technology responsibly.
Supporting Caregivers Further
Front and Center: Elevating Care Partners to Primary Clients: Working with care partners can go beyond giving them education and training—it can include enhancing their psychosocial well-being and supporting them at the end of their loved one’s life. Learn about novel approaches that you can use to assist these supporters as well as challenges that you may face along the way.
Are We Making Assumptions? Speech-Language Pathologists’ Approaches To Identifying and Managing Caregiver Burden: Understanding care partner burden and knowing meaningful support strategies is helpful, but asking questions will ensure that you as the clinician are not making assumptions about caregivers. Here, the authors discuss the need to ask specific questions about the source of care partner challenges and whether or not management strategies are actually working.
More on National Speech-Language-Hearing Month
ASHA’s National Speech-Language-Hearing Month website features all new resources for 2026. Resources for the public provide tips on screen time and technology for caregivers and families of preschool-age children. The website also contains articles to share with caregivers of children and adults.
We’re so excited to celebrate National Speech-Language-Hearing Month with you! Check back later this month for another post—this one focusing on pediatric issues. This May, we hope you’re able to take some time to join ASHA in sharing information with care partners about the important services that clinicians like you provide!
