Brain Friends
Brain Friends the podcast is a space for neuro nerds and stroke survivors to talk about all things aphasia, language recovery, and community. Hosted by Dr. D. Seles, a neuroscientist and speech-language pathologist, and Angie C., 2x stroke survivor and aphasia advocate. Listen, laugh, and learn with these two stakeholders determined to make a difference in aphasia advocacy.
Brain Friends
Aphasia Treatment
In this episode of Brain Friends, we discuss aphasia treatment and ways Speech Language Pathologists support recovery.
Treatment settings and strategies from automatic speech tasks to errorless learning are explained with examples.
Dr. Seles discusses health equity in aphasia and how to avoid implicit bias. How insurance demands dictate treatment tasks and ways SLPs can write treatment goals to align with function.
Angie shares the importance of inclusion in research, treatment, and the use of patient-reported outcomes. She discusses her treatment journey and the importance of the Life Participation Approach in Aphasia.
Together we recognize that in aphasia treatment “the client doesn’t plateau, the clinician does”.
For more information on the Resource Orientation for Stroke and Aphasia conference:
https://aphasiaresource.org/
https://www.cognitiverecoverylab.com/seles
https://aphasia.org/stories/announcing-the-davetrina-seles-gadson-health-equity-grant-program/
Our beloved colleague, Dr. Davetrina Seles Gadson, passed away January 11, 2025. Dr. Gadson was an extraordinary speech-language pathologist and neuroscience researcher who devoted her energy to studying health disparities in aphasia recovery. She was a fierce advocate for improving services for individuals with aphasia, particularly Black Americans. Her research transformed our understanding of these health disparities and shed light on how we can address them. We were privileged to have Dr. Gadson as a cherished member of our lab community for four years, first as a postdoctoral fellow and then as an Instructor of Rehabilitation Medicine. She was still a close collaborator and friend to many of us at the time of her passing. Dr. Gadson was an incredible person—compassionate, inspiring, and full of life. Her dedication to advancing equity in aphasia recovery and her profound impact on our community will never be forgotten. We are committed to honoring her memory by continuing to push our field forward and fight for equitable services for all people with aphasia.