Cowboy Aphasia Camp Helps Campers Talk and Student Clinicians Learn

For seven years—soon to be eight—during the heat of the Oklahoma summer, graduate students in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Oklahoma State University have teamed up with people who have aphasia for a week of activities designed to get everyone talking. Plans for last year’s camp started in the usual way, and then, through a twist of good fortune, two speech-language pathologists from Perth, Australia, crossed 13 time zones to join the event. OSU’s Cowboy Aphasia Camp will never be the same. (Named for the school’s mascot–the OSU Cowboys.) Historically, funds for our camp are raised primarily through an awareness walk, Heels for Words, which takes place each spring. (This year’s fundraiser is scheduled for April 27 and camp takes place in early June.) Last year, during the process of soliciting donations and sponsorships, a request went out to the developers of a card game called Tellable, designed to promote improved spoken language based on the principles of constraint-induced aphasia treatment (CIAT). Australia-based SLPs Angela Cream and Deborah West are the brains behind this material. Amazingly, they responded to the request with an offer to donate a copy of their game and their time and travel to Tulsa, Oklahoma, for the duration of camp. It was an offer we could not refuse! Cream and West powered through their jet lag and met our team of 11 student clinicians during clinician boot camp, which takes place the Friday befo...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Tags: Academia & Research Health Care Private Practice Slider Speech-Language Pathology Aphasia graduate school Speech Disorders Source Type: blogs