Body
ASHA Voices, a podcast from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, recently posted an episode featuring Elissa Larkin, research speech-language pathologist, Center for Aphasia Research and Treatment.
During the podcast interview, Elissa shared her thoughts about the role of speech-language pathologists in advocating for patients with communication disabilities and empowering fellow clinicians to provide “communication ramps” when interacting with patients.
“A PT or OT might come to me and say, ‘How do I make it easier for my patient to understand the information I’m telling him?’ Or, ‘How do I understand better what he’s trying to tell me?’” she said. “We can build on that and lift these things up more broadly. Everyone can use communication ramps — it’s just a matter of training.”
Elissa also discussed Communications Champions, a yearlong interprofessional program she designed to progressively build clinicians’ knowledge of and practical skills when interacting with patients with communication disabilities.
“It helps clinicians understand all these different options they have when they’re communicating with their patients and demonstrating what those can look like, and then gives them lots of practice opportunities,” she said.