An Aphasia Book Club in a University Setting

49 Pages·2012·1.08 MB·English

MAKING THE CONNECTION:
An Aphasia Book Club in a
University Setting
Roxanne Stoehr, Kristin Taylor, Anna Pate and Lindsey Matherne
Making the Connection:
An Aphasia Book Club in a University Setting
Southeastern Louisiana University

 Communication Sciences and Disorders
 Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic
Hammond, Louisiana

Located between New Orleans

and Baton Rouge
Aphasia Group for over 10 years

Our Clients with Aphasia
Typically - 4 to 6 clients each semester in our

aphasia group
Presently

 3 males and 2 females
 Age range - 56 to 78 years
 Types:
 2 clients with Broca’s
 1 client with Wernicke’s
 2 clients with anomia
Student Clinicians
Beginning graduate students

Senior level undergraduate students

Course requirements to participate

 semester in introduction to linguistics or structure of
language
 methods and observations
 a language development and typically
a language disorders class
 typically graduate students have taken aphasia
Supervision
Supervised by a University supervisor

 ASHA guidelines
Videotape first few sessions

 Students obtain baseline information concerning the
clients’ conversational abilities and the students’ own
interactional behavior
Students trained in facilitated communication

 compensatory strategies used by clients with aphasia
 facilitating strategies used by communication partners
 resources from course in aphasia
 Nina Simmons Mackie
Baseline Data & Objectives
Interview with client and significant other

Client’s conversational abilities

 Speech acts
 Level of participation
 Language and speech production
Client’s use of

 Compensatory strategies
 Available resources such as
 iPads, laptops, newspapers, dry erase boards, paper and
pens, dictionaries and maps
Overview of Intervention
Group intervention designed to:
Facilitate conversation in a naturalistic

environment
Establish a supportive community

Activities
conversational topic starters

political and other current events

historical events

word games

show and tell activities

scrap booking

cooking

poetry study

most recently….the book club!

The Book Club
Started in the spring of 2009

A full novel every semester

read

discussed

written about

Books
 My Stroke of Luck by Kirk Douglas
 Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank Gilbreth, Jr.
and Ernest Carey
 The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
 Tuesday With Morrie by Mitch Albom
 The Greatest Generation Speaks By Tom Brokaw
 A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg
(presently reading)