LingQuery

At any moment, a stroke or brain injury can leave aphasia in its wake, a language disorder that can impact all facets of someone’s life. But aphasia has ripple effects that move well beyond the individual. Learning to live with aphasia is something caregivers have to do too, and navigating this major life change is a daunting task, to say the least. Mounting research is clear that integrating caregivers in the rehabilitative proces...

Injuries are no fun. A stubbed toe or a skinned knee are painful, sure, but they’re hardly life-altering. Clearly, not all wounds are created equal. It’s no surprise that trauma to the brain, in any form, can drastically (and permanently) alter someone’s life in myriad ways. But what exactly are the long-term consequences of brain injury? Importantly, how does brain injury reshape communication and behavior? If you or a loved one h...

*DISCLAIMER* Since recording this episode, a lot has changed in the U.S. and around the world. If you've been paying attention, you know that new federal policies continue to threaten the rights of transgender and gender-diverse people—including access to gender-affirming healthcare through insurance coverage. For more information on how you can push back against these inhumane attempts to deny basic healthcare, our guest Anne has ...

Finding out that a loved one is “comatose”, or in a minimally conscious/vegetative state is devastating. In far too many cases, families are told their loved one will never be aware of anything, never mind use language or communicate, again. Many caregivers are pushed to “pull the plug” way too soon. But despite a shocking misdiagnosis rate, many patients do end up regaining at least some level of consciousness, and, through specia...

Cultural competence in the field of communication sciences & disorders (CSD) is an essential topic, especially when so many CSD professionals in the United States continue to be white and female. How can clinicians navigate an increasingly diverse client base if they lack key cultural perspectives and awareness? And how can clients who identify as racial and/or ethnic minorities be expected to connect with SLPs and AuDs who sim...

If you’re reading this sentence with ease, consider yourself privileged. Why? Language development is a complex cognitive process that involves distinct, yet overlapping, domains. Most of it develops relatively effortlessly and without instruction. But there’s a crucial component that needs to be explicitly taught, and it's one that most of us take for granted - literacy. It’s no secret that reading and writing are among the most e...

Think about your thinking for a moment. No seriously. Are you doing it? Now think some more. Is your inner monologue composed of actual words or is it simply a stream of images or impressions? What would it be like to “think” without language anyway? 

In this episode, Aidan & Emily are joined by Dr. Amanda Wadams of St. Louis University to talk about the intertwined, yet distinct domains of human cognition and language, and how...

Can you repeat that? We didn’t quite catch- what?! WHAT?!? 

For many of us, hearing is an essential component of language & communication. Unfortunately, the research is in, and the modern world is louder than ever. From industrial noise pollution, to jam-packed crowded cities to personal devices that deliver sound straight to our eardrums, protecting our hearing has never been more important. And no, we’re not just talking abo...

The identity of stuttering as a clinical condition has gone through several big changes over the last few decades, with research and clinical efforts focused increasingly on the psychosocial factors that impact those who stutter. In this episode, Emily & Aidan team up with student clinician Matthew Phillips, a person who stutters, to discuss the many dimensions of “fluency” in the field of speech-language pathology. Thank you t...

Have you ever listened to a foreign language and marveled at the auditory chaos that bombards your ear? It’s impossible to tell where one word ends and the next begins. Emily & Aidan talk with cognitive scientist Dr. Emily Myers, who in her captivating career as an educator & researcher has unearthed astounding insights and questions about the human ability of speech and its perception. Thanks to listener Austin for submitt...

Do you know what your first word was? Do you remember a time before you acquired language? Why do some of us shout out “Mama!” as our first utterance while others come up with “clock”? In this debut episode, Emily & Aidan are joined by cognitive psychologist Dr. Derek Houston to investigate the nature of words, early linguistic development, and human perception. Thank you to listener Anthony for submitting today’s LingQuery!

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