I'm a speech-language pathologist & co-founder of Tactus. Tactus offers evidence-based apps for aphasia therapy and lots of free resources, articles, and education - like this newsletter. Sign up to get my updates 1-2 times a month.
💕 Resource Round-Up: Videos, Biases, & Goodbyes
|
You asked for it, so here it is: another batch of resources related to medical speech pathology from around the web. This month we're featuring a new assessment, several videos, important articles, and a sad goodbye to a colleague. 1. ✂️ Free Videos for Home Practice: SLP Kasondra creates YouTube videos to help people with aphasia practice at home. Check out her naming videos that give progressive cues to help you say the names of common items. This one about office items features our Naming Therapy app! Subscribe to Speech Secrets or share with your patients. 2. ✅ Capacity Assessment: The Aphasia Institute is offering the Communication Aid for Capacity Evaluation (CACE) for free on its website. This tool helps healthcare professionals determine if people with communication barriers (such as aphasia, hearing loss, or limited English) have the capacity to decide where to live. 3. 🖤 Saying Goodbye to Seles: The aphasia community lost a champion last month with the untimely passing of Dr. Davetrina Seles Gadson. Her research, advocacy, and Brain Friends podcast made an impact by educating people about health equity and aphasia. The National Aphasia Association has set up a grant in her honor. 🎬 I collaborated with Seles two years ago to bring you our video article: Better Serving the Needs of Black Stroke Survivors in Speech Pathology. Please watch these videos to improve cultural competency and celebrate her life and work. Here's the first one: 4. 🧠 Recommendations for Vascular Cognitive Impairment: Canadian Stroke Best Practices has released a new module all about Vascular Cognitive Impairment (VCI), defined as a condition of the brain & its blood vessels that causes challenges with cognitive abilities. SLPs should read the recommendations for cognitive rehabilitation. 5. 🎞️ Aphasia Documentary Series: My alma mater, Boston University, has produced a 5-part documentary series about aphasia and made it available for free on YouTube. Worth a watch! 6. 📓 Generalization in Aphasia: A new tutorial for SLPs in the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology highlights 5 principles to incorporate into therapy for a better chance of generalization beyond the treatment session. We're incorporating all of these principles into our new aphasia treatments inside the Virtual Rehab Center, our online software for medical SLPs. Sign up for a free 3-week trial to use the interactive treatments and resources with your patients. 7. 😳 Check Your Bias: A new study of SLPs' practice patterns in dysphagia management revealed that the simple presence of a dementia diagnosis made clinicians less likely to recommend active rehabilitation in two case studies in which that was the only substantial difference. 8. ✨ A New Blog Series: "What SLPs Need to Know" is our latest series that brings you well-researched information in an easy-to-read format, with a summary handout. We've started with Attention Therapy and will bring you more cognitive topics this year. 9. 👴🏼 Brain Health: A new Lancet report emphasizes that lifestyle changes can reduce the risk of dementia. Mass General offers a free Brain Care Score checklist to self-assess risks. Our daily choices and habits make a difference in our future health for both body and mind. Our latest PDF resource in the Virtual Rehab Center is a Brain Health handout for SLPs to discuss important lifestyle factors with patients. Use it to address: goal setting, reading comprehension, memory, summarizing, and decision-making. 👀 Coming Soon at Tactus:
We'll let you know when these exciting new features are ready! Megan P.S. Please spread the ❤️ by forwarding this email to a friend or colleague. I appreciate your support so much! |
Megan @ Tactus Therapy
I'm a speech-language pathologist & co-founder of Tactus. Tactus offers evidence-based apps for aphasia therapy and lots of free resources, articles, and education - like this newsletter. Sign up to get my updates 1-2 times a month.
Hi Reader, Ever turned to your SLP bestie and said, “Wouldn’t it be cool if…?” (...SOAP notes wrote themselves? ...patients got real-time feedback on their speech? ...therapy was more like real life?) Yeah, same. So we decided to take those “Wouldn’t it be cool if…” ideas, combine them with evidence-based practices, and make them a reality. Because making our work easier while improving patient outcomes is what Tactus is all about. 🎙️ Instant Feedback Through Speech Recognition Wouldn’t it be...
Hi Reader, I’ve been talking a lot lately about new treatments, resources, and features in the Virtual Rehab Center. But you might be wondering… exactly what is the Virtual Rehab Center and how is it different from the Tactus apps? 🤔 Great questions! Let me start by telling you how they’re alike: Both give you digital interactive treatments to help your patients. Both have evidence-based therapy exercises to maximize impact. Both are affordable, easy to use, and designed by SLPs for SLPs. I...
"Aphasia is a loss of language, not a loss of intellect." We know this is true. Many people with aphasia have no problems with other thinking skills, like memory or planning. It's only an issue of communication. 💬 Aphasia is caused by damage to the brain, usually by a stroke or head injury. 🧠 However, brain damage can also cause cognitive problems. Especially early on. 💭 When researchers tested people with aphasia, they found that almost ALL of the people with aphasia had problems with...