Events Calendar

Title: Using the RTSS to Characterize Treatment Approaches for Aphasia

Presenter: Jean Gordon, Ph.D., CCC-SLP Associate Professor, Director of Graduate Studies

Abstract: In spite of robust progress in treatment for aphasia, many questions regarding optimal care remain unanswered. One of the major challenges to progress in the field is the lack of a common framework to adequately describe individual treatments. Such a framework would allow comparisons across studies as well as improved communication among researchers, clinicians, and other stakeholders. I will describe how aphasia treatment approaches (as well as treatments for other communication disorders) can be systematically characterized using the Rehabilitation Treatment Specification System (RTSS). At the core of the RTSS is a tripartite structure that focuses on targets (the behavior that is expected to change as a result of treatment), ingredients (what a clinician does to affect change in the target), and mechanism(s) of action (why a given treatment works by linking the ingredients to the target). The goal of the RTSS in clinical aphasiology is to improve communication in published studies, grant proposals, and in the clinical care of persons with aphasia.