Mission
The overarching mission of our laboratory is to design and test clinically aplicable treatments for person with aphasia and/or acquired apraxia of speech (AOS) utilizing sound theoretical bases for treatment and rigorous experimental methods. We have and are continuing to examine treatments for 1) word-retrieval difficulties in aphasia; 2) language production impairments in aphasia, and 3) speech production disruptions in AOS.
Our interests in developing and evaluating treatments coincides with an interest in improving our understanding of vaiability in neurogenic speech and language disorders. Consequently, we also conduct investigations of performance variability.
In addition, our research includes development of outcome measures for use in treatment studies and research to identify factors that may be used to predict response to treatment.
Most of our research involves persons who are stroke survivors, but we also include persons whose aphasia/AOS stems from other causes.
Who We Are & Where We Are Located
Our main laboratory is located at the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System (Building 2) with another smaller laboratory at the University of Utah, Behavioral Sciences Building (13th Floor).
Our team is led by Drs. Julie Wambaugh and Shannon Mauszycki and consists of a group of research speech-language-pathogists (SLPs) who have expertise in the treatment of Aphasia and AOS as well as in reserach methods. Our treatment research is conducted primarily by ASHA certified speech-language pathologists who have exptensive experience in the treatment of aphasia and AOS. We occationally involve students in our treatment studies; in these cases, students are supervised 100% of the time.
Behavioral Health Science
Email: julie.wambaugh@health.utah.edu
Mail: Aphasia Research Program
390 South 1530 East, Suite1201
Salt Lake City, UT 84112