For the last few weeks, people with aphasia have been committing to small steps toward wellness with the Audrey Holland Wellness Challenge. The challenge honors the late aphasia pioneer, who worked tirelessly to treat the whole person, not just their aphasia. Aphasia impacts the entire family, which is why we are encouraging caregivers to join the challenge, too, especially for November, which is National Family Caregivers Month (NFCM). Download the Caregiver Guide for Ideas Focusing on your wellness enables you to be a better caregiver. Taking time to emotionally refuel, exercise, or relax is ..read more

When Senator John Fetterman appeared on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on October 11, 2023, he immediately acknowledged the iPad on the desk. Colbert: Explain to the audience what’s that technology we’re using right here for this interview. Fetterman: Yeah, I am. I’m so grateful that after the stroke — I had some lingering processing auditory issues, and now, sometimes, I use this captioning. And that is nothing different than having glasses like you have. So I actually can process everything, but sometimes the language gets kind of lost in translation, so I use this when I’m able to inte ..read more

If you attend the monthly Aphasia Cafe, you know we love spotlighting aphasia t-shirts. It all started when Marshall wore an aphasia-themed shirt to the chat. Soon, other people wore aphasia-themed clothing they found online, and a tradition began. We use the first three minutes of the chat to admire everyone’s shirt. Little did the participants know that the NAA has been working for months to open our online store, filled with shirts to raise aphasia awareness or provide communication tips. And in a few months, it will also contain one of YOUR designs. How To Access the Store Our online store ..read more

Meet the winners of the 2023 Barbara Martin Aphasia Research Grant. Alexander Swiderski Alexander Swiderski, a Ph.D. student at the University of Pittsburgh and The Center for Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University, received funding for a study titled: “The neurocognitive mechanisms underlying semantic feature generation in persons with aphasia.” What does that mean? Swiderski says, “Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA) is a widely-used word production treatment for people with aphasia that requires participants to generate semantic features associated with target words.” His study m ..read more

Australia is wider than the moon (2,485 miles east to west vs. the moon, which is 2,113 miles). A shrimp’s heart is located in its head. The national anthems of Spain, San Marino, Kosovo, and Bosnia and Herzegovina do not have any lyrics. What do all of these things have in common? They are fun facts. Bring your fun facts to the next Aphasia Cafe. Whether you once learned something interesting that stuck with you or are quickly Googling for fun facts to bring along, we are sharing interesting pieces of information to connect with one another and practice speech. Join us for this next installme ..read more

This September, the National Aphasia Association brought on a new executive director. Maura Silverman, MS, CCC/SLP, founded the Triangle Aphasia Project. She brings 34 years of expertise to the organization. She recently sat down with board member Angie Cauthorn, co-founder and president of the ARCH Network (Aphasia Resource Collaboration Hub), who acquired aphasia seven years ago following two strokes. You can also catch Cauthorn on the Brain Friends podcast. You can watch their interview below, or read the transcript under the video. Transcript Angie Well, hello, Maura Silverman, what’s goi ..read more

You may know Marianne Wiggins from her award-winning novels, including 2003’s Evidence of Things Unseen, nominated for the National Book Award and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. But a stroke in 2016 took away her words. She regained her ability to read and write and completed another novel recently with her daughter’s help. We have been profiling well-known people with aphasia, including Ralph Waldo Emerson and Gabby Giffords. We’ve now turned our attention to Marianne Wiggins. Her Stroke Story People magazine covered Wiggins’s stroke story, including how it brought mother and daughter tog ..read more

You may have heard about the Audrey Holland Wellness Challenge. The idea behind the challenge is to be as kind to yourself as you are to others, and it begins by taking one small action that lifts your spirits or makes you feel better. For example, my action is to take a “virtual” walk, which I can do regardless of the weather. I put on a virtual walk video from YouTube and walk or jog in place in front of the television. For fifteen minutes, I feel like I’m in Mexico City, Paris, or Cairo. I always feel a little bit better afterward. We are gathering ideas and sharing actions so you can try n ..read more

Do you have aphasia in your dreams? It is a question that came up in a recent Aphasia Cafe chat when a person mentioned that they can speak easily in their dreams despite having aphasia when awake. We quickly put it to a poll, and 84% of the participants reported that they also do not have aphasia in their dreams. 16% stated that they still have aphasia when they dream. Do you remember your dreams and whether you can easily speak, read, write, or listen? Take our poll, and we will put the results in a future NAA newsletter. Loading… Studies About Aphasia and Dreams We had a story many years ag ..read more

Aphasia impacts more than the ability to communicate. It can affect a person’s mental health. Our September Ask the Expert, Rebecca Hunting Pompon, PhD, will be speaking about stress, depression, resilience, and aphasia on September 14, 2023 at 7 pm ET. (To watch the webinar, click over to the landing page for the Zoom link.) She will also be introducing one important step you can take this fall to pay attention to your overall health: The Audrey Holland Wellness Challenge Want to participate? Keep reading. Who Was Audrey Holland? Audrey Holland was a pioneer in the field of aphasia. At a time ..read more