University of Michigan Aphasia Program

We will complete a thorough assessment of your speech and language skills during the first two to three days of the program session.

Some clients come to the office for a separate evaluation prior to enrolling, but it is not required. We request medical records prior to admission, particularly speech and language reports and progress notes.

The results of the evaluation, in conjunction with reports from previous therapy and input from the client and care partner (s), provide us with information on the client’s speech and language strengths and challenges. This helps us to develop a personalized communication profile and establish an individualized treatment plan with functional goals and objectives.

The one-on-one therapy is designed to target specific goals, which are developed from baseline testing and conversations with you and your family. For example, if you are a real estate agent and you would like to work on language skills that are related to your job, we can set specific goals and work with your level of abilities to move along that path.

Individual sessions use a variety of communication strategies. While each client has a primary speech-language pathologist they work with, you will also work with other therapists during your time at UMAP.

Individual therapy targets:

• • Listening

• • Speaking

• • Reading

• • Writing

• • Memory

• • Cognition

• • Multimodal communication

• • Technology to support and/or improve communication

Learn strategies to enhance verbal skills, such as:

• • Drawing

• • Gesturing

• • Using a mobile device or tablet

• • Writing

• • Using a personalized communication book or picture dictionary

Care partners are always encouraged to participate in individual therapy.

Re-learning communication skills and exploring new ones in a supportive atmosphere among peers leads to improved self-confidence and growing hope. Clients encourage each other to try new ways of communicating and reinforce each other’s successes. Skills learned in individual therapy are put to use in a naturalistic, supportive, and dynamic context in the group therapy sessions.

Part of what makes our program special is the care partner component. We want to make sure both care partners and clients are taken care of while working through the intensive program and beyond.

UMAP offers a series of group meetings for care partners. “Care partners” can include family members, friends, professional caregivers or aides, or anyone else who is present in support of a UMAP participant.

The purpose of these meetings is to provide information, share resources and strategies, and offer opportunities for asking questions, sharing concerns, and discussing challenges as well as triumphs, with both UMAP clinicians and other care partners.

Care partners are also encouraged to attend designated therapy sessions to learn how to effectively communicate with their person with aphasia.

Learn More: Care Partner Resources

At the end of each session, we host a lunch to celebrate the progress of all of our clients. As the session comes to a close, our clinicians work with you and your loved ones to determine the next steps of care, how to continue progress at home, and resources that may be of help to you.