School of Health and
Rehabilitation Sciences

Pittsburgh Translational Aphasia Research Initiative

The Pittsburgh Translational Aphasia Research Initiative (PTARI), is a multi-lab collaboration which aims to leverage existing Communication Science and Disorders (CSD) and Pittsburgh-area strengths in aphasia research and clinical translation to address these critical public-health problems.

About

Language and communication impairments following brain damage (aphasia) are a common and debilitating experience for survivors of stroke. Approximately 30% of stroke survivors experience lasting language impairments, with over 2 million people currently living with aphasia in the U.S. Impairments in the ability to produce and understand language can disrupt many activities of daily living, including vocational opportunities, fulfilling family roles and functional independence, which can have a devastating impact on overall quality of life. It is therefore crucially important to improve our understanding of aphasia in order to develop more effective interventions.

Our Mission

Enhance and accelerate progress in translational aphasia research.
Support the Pittsburgh aphasia community and engage them as collaborators in translational aphasia research.

Collaborating Labs

Language and Brain Lab
The focus of the Language and Brain Lab (LAB lab, PI: Michael Walsh Dickey) is on the neural and cognitive mechanisms supporting language, with research exploring both impaired and intact abilities in aphasia in order to improve aphasia treatment interventions and outcomes.

Language Rehabilitation and Cognition lab
The focus of the Language Rehabilitation and Cognition lab (LRCL, PI: Will Evans) is on the emotional and cognitive elements involved in language and aphasia recovery, with research aimed at developing adapted counseling and technology-based aphasia interventions to improve quality and access to aphasia treatment.

Communication and Cognition Lab
The focus of the Communication and Cognition Lab (PI: Sarah Wallace) is on improving communication effectiveness and quality of life for people with aphasia and other neurogenic communication disorders with research focusing on strategies and interventions to improve aphasia care.

VA Pittsburgh Aphasia Lab
The focus of our VA affiliate, the VA Pittsburgh Aphasia Lab (PIs: Will Hula and Michael Walsh Dickey) is on the assessment, treatment, and neurocognitive bases of aphasia. The lab is affiliated with the VA Pittsburgh Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center and housed within the Audiology and Speech Pathology Service, which also administers the Program for Intensive Residential Aphasia Treatment and Education (PIRATE), an intensive, comprehensive aphasia program that serves Veterans from across the United States.

Current Initiatives

Pittsburgh Community Aphasia Center

Weekly Offerings every Wednesday at the Homewood Community Engagement Center (CEC).

Morning Small Group 9 – 10 a.m. Coffee Chat Conversation Group

Registration is required for this group session. Please reach out Chrisa Kravetz at chk247@pitt.edu to register.

Max of eight (8) individuals with aphasia meet with three graduate students in speech language pathology at the University of Pittsburgh and Chrisa Kravetz. We work on goals related to improving sentence structure, quality of content within the sentence, and conversation together. Topics of interest to this particular group include cooking, restaurants, sports, and fishing.

We would like you to attend every week to maximize progress and build rapport and relationships with other members of the group.

“Big Group” Aphasia Support Group 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

This group is open to individuals with aphasia and their family members/caregivers. No RSVP required; we are here every week at this time. The group size is about 10-12 people with aphasia and their caregivers, typically.

Agenda:

Meet and Greet: 10:30 – 11 a.m.: We meet in a large semi-circle and introduce ourselves like a traditional support group. You can share how you acquired aphasia, anything on your mind that is bothering you or you are improving. Members that have been coming for a long time share a “fun fact” about anything that happened in their life or is going to happen in our time not seeing one another.
Guest Speaker OR Member Spotlight 11 – 11:30 a.m.: Guest speaker of a topic of interest generated by group members. Examples: OT to talk about adaptations to cooking, donning clothing/jewelry, sleep expert in aphasia, community figures to talk about how to get involved in the community.
1. Member Spotlight: a member with aphasia who shares more about themselves to help the group get to know them, and maybe their characteristics outside of aphasia. Examples: PowerPoint photos and stories of a recent vacation, cooking cupcakes for the group (professional baker and home baker), sharing art you made with the group, just talking about your personal history and highlights. One member has a daughter who is a librarian, and she led the group in a sing-a-along.
11:30 – 11:45 a.m.: Break for snacks and conversation

Small Group Breakout Sessions 11:45 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.:

We break into a small group of choice:

Open conversation
Topic – a written and picture guide for a topic that is. seasonal or a current event.
Game Group – a language-based game to promote language skills and social engagement.

Afternoon Small Group 1 – 2 p.m. Book Club:

Meets in a group of (currently) four (4) women and read books that the group selects. We provide reading strategies, pictures and written character guides and any other supports required to read through books together. During the group we review summaries, answer comprehension questions and have discussions about topics generated by book content.

Monthly PPA Support Group – 1 – 2 p.m. the last Wednesday of the month

Registration is required for this group session. Please reach out Chrisa Kravetz at chk247@pitt.edu to register.

Upcoming Support Group Dates:

March 26
April 30

The group will be separated into individuals with PPA in one group and care partner/family members in the other. Direct support will be provided to each group and then they will join one another for a wrap up at the end.

Resources

PTARI Resources

Aphasia Games for Health
Games are a powerful way to connect with others and can provide fun and engaging contexts for language and communication practice. The Language Rehab and Cognition Lab has teamed with professional game designers, game design researchers and members of the aphasia community to co-design aphasia treatment game prototypes. Training resources and free game prototypes are available here: https://www.aphasiagamesforhealth.com/

Rob Cavanaugh, MS, CCC-SLP, is a PTARI alumni and currently an assistant professor at the Mass General Institute of Health Professions. Cavanaugh’s personal website contains a number of apps and resources for computer-based aphasia assessment data analysis and reproducible research: https://robcavanaugh.com/. He has also developed an aphasia-friendly website for finding active aphasia research studies registered on clinicaltrials.gov: https://aphasiaresearch.org/

Assessments offered available from the VA Pittsburgh Aphasia Lab.
Shannon Austermann Hula and colleagues developed The Aphasia Communication Outcome Measure (ACOM) is a patient-reported assessment of communicative effectiveness for use by clinicians with clients with aphasia. It’s available for web-based administration or download here: https://william-hula.shinyapps.io/acom/

The Philadelphia Naming Test (PNT) is a confrontation picture naming assessment of anomia. Hula and colleagues have developed an adaptive computer-based version of this assessment (the PNT-CAT), which is available for web-based administration or download here: https://william-hula.shinyapps.io/pnt-cat/

General Aphasia Resources

Aphasia Access
https://www.aphasiaaccess.org/

National Aphasia Association
https://www.aphasia.org/

Academy of Neurologic Communication Disorders and Sciences
https://www.ancds.org/

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
https://www.asha.org/practice-portal/clinical-topics/aphasia/

Better Conversations with Aphasia
A free E-Learning Resource from University College London designed to to improve access to conversation therapy: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/short-courses/search-courses/better-conversations-…

Veterans with aphasia can email Mary.Sullivan@va.gov to learn about clinical services available to veterans at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System.