Chapman University’s Crean College of Health & Behavioral Sciences has been home to the Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders (CSD) since 2017. It is known for training some of the best speech-language pathologists (SLP) in the country while simultaneously providing outstanding, no-cost services to the Orange County community. The long-standing partnership between Chapman and the OC Childhood Language Center in Santa Ana is well known but not many know about the in-house Adult Learning Lab.

Located in the new Rinker Health Sciences Campus in Irvine, The Adult Learning Lab offers free diagnostic and intervention services to adults with communication disabilities caused by brain injury, stroke, and other neurological disorders. Treatment is provided by graduate student clinicians with personalized supervision by faculty members.

In addition to offering traditional SLP therapies, the lab also provides special services utilizing cutting-edge research and technology. Augmentative-Alternative Communication Group (AAC) teaches speech-impaired participants to use devices such as computers, iPads, and smartphones to communicate. Aphasia Book Club is for participants who want to read “real books” again. Aphasia Group 2 is designed specifically for survivors of stroke. The overall goal amongst the participants is to improve conversation with family and friends using multimodal communication.

A higher-level group focusing on expressive language, auditory comprehension, and intelligibility is simply called the Communication Group. Finally, participants in the Young Adult Cognitive-Communication Group use organization, planning, and problem-solving strategies to improve executive functioning skills for activities of daily living and in social settings. Skills include paying attention, regulating emotions, self-monitoring, and understanding different points of view.

If you or an adult you know needs no-cost SLP therapy, please get in touch with clinic director Lisa Lachance. You can also call the general inquiry line for more information at (714) 532-7765.

International Cognitive-Communication Disorders Conference

Speech-language clinicians and researchers from around the world will gather at the upcoming International Cognitive-Communication Disorders Conference, January 16-18 at Chapman University’s campus in Orange, California. Click this link for more information or register. More about this conference will be covered in next week’s post.