School of Communication Science and Disorders’s (SCSD) Elizabeth Madden, Erin Bush, and Ellen Nimmons attended the Clinical Aphasiology Conference (CAC) in Waikoloa Beach, Hawaii from May 28-June 1.

It was such a treat to attend a conference in such a relaxing and breathtaking environment,” Madden said. “It allowed for a causal and friendly atmosphere amongst the conference attendees.”

CAC is a yearly conference for researchers and clinicians who focus on improving language, communication, and life participation for individuals who have aphasia (a language disorder) or related brain injury or disease.

Research proposals must be accepted to attend the prestigious conference. There are only about 150-200 people who attend, which allows for everyone to be in the same room and engage in conversation that can lead to important connections and collaborations.

Madden and Bush, along with FSU alumna Jessica Obermeyer, presented a poster titled “Rehabilitation of Reading and Writing after Stroke: Clinical Practice and Perspectives of Speech-Language Pathologists.” This poster presented survey and interview data collected from speech-language pathologists regarding their thoughts on how best to help stroke survivors improve their reading and writing abilities and what challenges stand in the way of their clinical care.

Madden and Nimmons presented a poster titled “A novel aphasia literacy treatment: Preliminary data from a case series investigation.” This poster presented reading and spelling abilities for two stroke survivors with aphasia before and after they completed a phonologically based written language treatment.

“Our work emphasizes that people living with aphasia and speech-language pathologists both value working on literacy skills and there is a need for more research directed at developing treatments and resources in this area,” Madden said.