Episode 14: Meaningful Aphasia Therapy with Sarah Baar MA, CCC-SLP
In this episode, Sarah Baar lays the foundation to revolutionize your aphasia therapy. Calling upon the framework described in Kagan’s 2011 article (link below), Sarah brings tried and true methods to make language therapy functional for your patient’s communication needs. It’s more than naming opposites and listing words that begin with ‘b.’ Meaningful aphasia therapy is about understanding your patient’s personal interests, environmental needs/limitations, and participation in relationships, roles, and activities of choice. Once you know those things, you can have an impact on your patient’s communication abilities.
“Do we really need every patient to do this worksheet, or is it actually the goal that she’s doing her life and the worksheet doesn’t really matter as much?”
more sarah baar on the podcast:
Dig deeper with the following article:
Kagan, A. (2011). A-FROM in action at the aphasia institute. Seminars in Speech & Language, 32(3), 216-228.
Free Aphasia-Friendly Materials:
Aphasia Friendly Resources website has material regarding aphasia and technology, aphasia friendly iBooks, supporting autonomy, assessment and therapy activities, and SO MUCH MORE.
Aphasia Institute Participics: “ParticiPics is a free, searchable database of pictographic images designed to facilitate life's conversations. The pictographs are specially designed for communicating with people with aphasia and are the product of decades of research and experience with people in the aphasia and stroke communities.”
The UK Stroke Association webpage has great information for patients and family. "Making Information Accessible for People With Aphasia" <— a great resource in PDF format.
Be sure to check out Honeycomb Speech Therapy for Sarah’s excellent aphasia therapy resources. Sarah provides guidance to implement evidence based practice with the following techniques:
VNeST - Verb Network Strengthening Training,
SFA - Semantic Feature Analysis,
CART - Copy and Recall Training,
RET - Response Elaboration Therapy,
Sarah welcomes questions from curious SLPs! Feel free to reach out and contact her via her webpage: Honeycomb Speech Therapy. And because Sarah is so awesome, she’s offering a coupon for materials on her website: SUP10 (10% off total cart). You can hear more from Sarah Baar on Medbridge! Click the link for a discount on a MedBridge subscription. You can also use code: Honeycomb.
I’d like to say a HUGE thank you to Sarah Baar for providing the article and website links for the show notes! Also, how awesome that she’s providing a coupon for materials on her website for you guys!?! Take advantage of it! (I have!! LOL!)
Music: Way Up by Twisterium