This project is examining the relationship between inner speech (the little voice in your head) and treatment for word finding difficulties. We have completed data collection and have a forthcoming paper in AJSLP detailing the initial results. We asked participants to tell us whether they could say the word in their head (successful inner speech) during a confrontation naming task. We completed a cueing-based naming treatment hierarchy, and then repeated the confrontation naming task. 4 out of 5 participants showed significant improvement in naming accuracy for words that had successful inner speech. Our next steps in this analysis include looking at results beyond binary accuracy, such as the types of errors and the participants' error awareness. Stay tuned for additional publications from this body of work!

We are studying how inner speech supports other cognitive functions, including executive function (for example, decision-making, task-switching, resolving conflict) in people with aphasia. Dr. Fama presented results from this work at the 60th annual Academy of Aphasia meeting in Oct. 2022 and at the Clinical Aphasiology Conference in June 2023. A preprint of this work is available here and the manuscript is also under review at the journal Neuropsychologia.

In this project, we are examining the ways in which adults (including adults with aphasia) use inner speech in their everyday lives.

We partnered with the Stroke Comeback Center to examine the unique experiences of people with aphasia during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Check out our paper in the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. Our follow-up paper was just accepted to the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.

We are also interested in a few other topic areas, including mental health and cultural and linguistic diversity among individuals with aphasia. Stay tuned for updates on these projects!