Spring 2009 Classes Filed Under News

The semester is over, so it’s time for my update of the semester. This semester was probably my busiest one so far with 4 classes and clinic. My classes this semester included Fluency, Traumatic Brain Injury, Aphasia, and Dysphagia. Technically I should have taken Aphasia and Dysphagia last year, but they had to be postponed due to schedule conflicts.

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) was a good class. Typically, students take a class in Childhood Apraxia of Speech, but because most of my classmates are interested in the medical setting and they did not get much of an aphasia class, Apraxia was replaced. TBI was taught by the director of the clinic who worked several years with this population. The teacher doesn’t have a doctorate, so she has to get special permission to teach. This is the same teacher we had for Motor Speech Disorders last year. She is still one of the best teacher’s I’ve had. In the class we learned about cognitive communication disorders (impairments in memory, executive functioning, and attention) that result from a TBI and how to treat people with these impairments. It is an interesting field, but very heartbreaking to see individuals with injuries that have caused such damage to the brain. Next....

How to help a loved one suffering from aphasia

June is Aphasia Awareness Month. Aphasia is a loss of language skills, one of the disabilities that can result from a stroke. Language problems usually result from damage to the left temporal and parietal lobes of the brain. Next..

Bridging aphasia-based language gaps

Sarah Campbell
Staff Writer

Nestled on the fourth floor of the East Carolina University Health Sciences Building is a room where those suffering from aphasia have found a safe haven.
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"(Aphasia's) an impairment of language, the ability to use and comprehend words, Sherri Winslow, clinical supervisor for the ECU's Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, said. "It includes talking, listening, understanding, reading, writing and numbers - all of those things relate to language."

East Carolina University's Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders began hosting free aphasia support groups during March.

"One of the main purposes (of the group) is getting people together because some of those with aphasia may tend not to try to attempt to communicate out in public or with other people," Sherri Winslow, clinical supervisor for the departm Next..