Aphasia Awareness Among Spiritual Healthcare Providers in the United States.

Spiritual healthcare providers (e.g., chaplains) working in healthcare settings across the United States were surveyed with the goals of (1) understanding their awareness of aphasia (a language disorder affecting reading, writing, verbal communication, and auditory comprehension); (2) determining whether they have received any training in aphasia and what type of training has been received; (3) whether they altered their approach to assessing the spiritual well-being of a person with aphasia; and, (4) what tools were used to augment communication.

The Effects of Yoga Breathing Before Motor Speech Practice in Acquired Apraxia of Speech: An n-of-1 Trial.

A previous study discovered that two speakers with moderate apraxia of speech increased their sequential motion rates after unilateral forced-nostril breathing (UFNB) practiced as an adjunct to speech-language therapy in an AB repeated-measures design. The current study sought to: (1) delineate possible UFNB plus practice effects from practice effects alone in motor speech skills; (2) examine the relationships between UFNB integrity, participant-reported stress levels, and motor speech performance; and (3) sample a participant-led UFNB training schedule to contribute to the literature's growing understanding of UFNB dosage. A single-subject (n-of-1 trial), ABAB reversal design was used across four motor speech behaviors.

Dialect identification, intelligibility ratings, and acceptability ratings of dysarthric speech in two American English dialects.

The current study explored the intelligibility and acceptability ratings of dysarthric speakers with African American English (AAE) and General American English (GAE) dialects by listeners who identify as GAE or AAE speakers, as well as listener ability to identify dialect in dysarthric speech. Eighty-six listeners rated the intelligibility and acceptability of sentences extracted from a passage read by speakers with dysarthria. Samples were used from the Atlanta Motor Speech Disorders Corpus and ratings were collected via self-report.

The Intersectionality of Climate Change and Post-Stroke Aphasia.

Persons with communication disabilities including persons with post-stroke aphasia (PWAs) possess a vulnerability to climate change as a result of their communication impairments. The disproportionate effects of climate change are likely to exacerbate preexisting inequities in social determinants of health. Communication disability intersecting with other characteristics subject to discrimination (e.

Religiosity, Spirituality, Healthcare, and Aphasia Rehabilitation.

Awareness of the intersectionality of a person's religious and spiritual belief system with their mental and physical health is slowly being elevated within the Western healthcare system. There are many opportunities for better understanding and incorporation of religious and spiritual beliefs into aphasia rehabilitation. To extend the recognition of religion and spirituality's importance in healthcare to persons living with post-stroke aphasia while emphasizing the diversity of beliefs, the current article seeks to provide a brief overview of the global religions; explain the intersection of religion, spirituality, and health; review the existing literature in the area of aphasia and religion, spirituality, and spiritual care; discuss the clinical importance and implications of religion and spirituality; and finally, lay out a forward view of the direction this area of exploration may take within aphasiology.

Incidence of post-stroke depression symptoms and potential risk factors in adults with aphasia in a comprehensive stroke center.

Introduction: Depression may be a frequent sequela after stroke, however, its incidence has rarely been reported. The likelihood of post-stroke depression (PSD) may relate to individual factors including the presence of aphasia, which also complicates PSD diagnosis. The current study's purpose was to investigate the incidence of PSD symptoms in adults with aphasia, compare it to the incidence of PSD symptoms in adults without aphasia, and to identify potential risk factors for developing PSD in adults with aphasia.

Moving Toward Accurate Assessment of Working Memory in Adults With Neurogenically Based Communication Disorders.

Purpose This article presents a viewpoint highlighting concerns regarding currently available assessments of working memory in adults with neurogenic communication disorders. Additionally, we provide recommendations for improving working memory assessment in this population. Method This viewpoint includes a critique of clinical and experimental working memory tests relevant to speech-language pathologists.

Depression in Poststroke Aphasia.

Purpose The aim of this tutorial is to provide speech-language pathologists with foundational knowledge of poststroke depression comorbidly occurring with aphasia. Given the negative effect of depression on functional outcomes and mortality, it is crucial that speech-language pathologists possess this knowledge in order to better advocate for and treat their patients. Method and Results Three areas of complementary expertise (speech-language pathology, psychology, and neurology) collaborated on this tutorial to address the following areas: (a) provide terminology associated with depression and related mood disorders, (b) describe the potential underlying pathophysiology of depression in the general population, (c) provide an overview of our existing understanding of comorbid poststroke depression and aphasia, and (d) summarize current assessment methods and interventions for poststroke depression in adults with aphasia.

An exploratory study of student, speech-language pathologist and emergency worker impressions of speakers with dysarthria.

Purpose: To explore the influence of listener profession on impressions of speakers with dysarthria with varying intelligibility using semantic differential scales. Three listener groups (undergraduate students, emergency workers, speech-language pathologists (SLPs);  = 38) rated non-speech attributes of six adults with dysarthria that ranged from low to high speech intelligibility. Participants rated 22 bipolar adjective pairs and listening effort on visual analogue scales.

The Simple Aphasia Stress Scale.

Purpose Clinically accessible and concise measures of acute stress in adults with aphasia are lacking. The current article evaluated some psychometric features of a single-item self-report measure of acute stress in adults with aphasia, the Simple Aphasia Stress Scale. Method Three archival data sets utilizing varying iterations of a stress scale developed for studies of stress in adults with aphasia were included in the present analysis.

Diurnal Cortisol Dynamics, Perceived Stress, and Language Production in Aphasia.

Purpose The current study investigated diurnal cortisol dynamics in adults with and without aphasia, along with subjective reports of stress and measures of language production. Dysregulation of cortisol, a common biomarker of stress, is associated with cognitive dysfunction in different clinical populations. However, little is known about the consequences of stress-induced cortisol disturbances for stroke survivors, including those with aphasia.

Identification of Affective State Change in Adults With Aphasia Using Speech Acoustics.

Purpose: The current study aimed to identify objective acoustic measures related to affective state change in the speech of adults with post-stroke aphasia.

Method: The speech of 20 post-stroke adults with aphasia was recorded during picture description and administration of the Western Aphasia Battery-Revised (Kertesz, 2006). In addition, participants completed the Self-Assessment Manikin (Bradley & Lang, 1994) and the Stress Scale (Tobii Dynavox, 1981-2016) before and after the language tasks.

Spirituality and Post-Stroke Aphasia Recovery.

The role of spirituality in post-stroke aphasia recovery has been ignored despite its potential contribution to positive health outcomes, particularly stroke recovery. The present study examines the spiritual experience of adults with aphasia in an effort to better understand the role of one's spirituality in the aphasia recovery process. Thirteen adults with aphasia completed a modified spirituality questionnaire and participated in semi-structured interviews.

Brief mindfulness meditation group training in aphasia: exploring attention, language and psychophysiological outcomes.

Background: Stroke is currently the leading cause of long-term disability in adults in the United States. There is a need for accessible, low-cost treatments of stroke-related disabilities such as aphasia.

Aims: To explore an intervention for aphasia utilizing mindfulness meditation (MM).

The Atlanta Motor Speech Disorders Corpus: Motivation, Development, and Utility.

Background/aims: This paper describes the design and collection of a comprehensive spoken language dataset from speakers with motor speech disorders in Atlanta, Ga., USA. This collaborative project aimed to gather a spoken database consisting of nonmainstream American English speakers residing in the Southeastern US in order to provide a more diverse perspective of motor speech disorders.

Aphasia rehabilitation during adolescence: a case report.

Purpose: Descriptions of speech-language interventions addressing the unique aspects of aphasia in adolescence appear to be nonexistent. The current paper presents the case of a male adolescent who experienced a stroke with resultant aphasia and the speech and language therapy he received. Furthermore, we discuss the issues that are unique to an adolescent with aphasia and how they were addressed with this particular patient.

Stress and depression scales in aphasia: relation between the aphasia depression rating scale, stroke aphasia depression questionnaire-10, and the perceived stress scale.

Background: Assessment and diagnosis of post-stroke depression (PSD) among patients with aphasia presents unique challenges. A gold standard assessment of PSD among this population has yet to be identified.

Objectives: The first aim was to investigate the association between two depression scales developed for assessing depressive symptoms among patients with aphasia.

Mindfulness meditation in aphasia: A case report.

Background: Despite the potential behavioral and neurological benefits of Mindfulness Meditation (MM), its use in treating stroke related communication disabilities appears to be underexplored. Specifically, aphasia, a language disorder resulting from stroke, may be amenable to the benefits of MM because of the observed attention problems often underlying the language symptoms.

Objective: The current paper presents a case report of an adult with aphasia who was trained in MM.

Aphasia and the neuropsychobiology of stress.

Individuals with aphasia face significant challenges in their lives. These challenges stem from the difficulties caused by impaired language function. Impairment in the ability to successfully communicate could be a significant source of stress to individuals with aphasia.

Unilateral forced nostril breathing and aphasia--exploring unilateral forced nostril breathing as an adjunct to aphasia treatment: a case series.

Background And Purpose: Unilateral forced nostril breathing (UFNB), a yogic pranayama technique, improves verbal and spatial cognition in healthy adults. The use of UFNB as an adjunct in aphasia recovery has not been explored. The current study investigated the use and potential benefit of combining UFNB with conventional speech-language therapy.

The influence of speaker and listener variables on intelligibility of dysarthric speech.

Unlabelled: This study compared changes in speech clarity as a function of speaking context. It is well documented that words produced in sentence contexts yield higher intelligibility than words in isolation for speakers with mild to moderate dysarthria. To tease apart the effect of speaker and listener variables, the current study aimed to quantify differences in word intelligibility by speaking task.

Yogic breathing and Ayurveda in aphasia: a case study.

Purpose: We present a case study of a woman who used yogic breathing as Ayurvedic medicine in her recovery from poststroke aphasia. Ayurvedic medicine is one of the most ancient medicines of the world, but it is not widely used for aphasia rehabilitation in many Western countries. The description of this case aims to further the understanding of the benefits that this type of medicine may provide to poststroke patients living with aphasia.

The Relationship Between Expressive Vocabulary Knowledge and Reading Skills for Adult Struggling Readers.

This study examined expressive vocabulary and its relationship to reading skills for 232 native English-speaking adults who read between the third- and fifth-grade levels. The Boston Naming Test (BNT; Kaplan, Goodglass, & Weintraub, 2001) was used to measure expressive vocabulary. Participants scored lower than the normative sample of adults on all aspects of the test; they had fewer spontaneously correct answers, and were not helped by stimulus or phonemic cues.

Acute stress reduces speech fluency.

People often report word-finding difficulties and other language disturbances when put in a stressful situation. There is, however, scant empirical evidence to support the claim that stress affects speech productivity. To address this issue, we measured speech and language variables during a stressful Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) as well as during a less stressful "placebo" TSST (Het et al.