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 simply don’t understand their lived experiences? What does this all mean for quality of care not just in the field of CSD, but the US healthcare system at large?

In this episode, Emily & Aidan chat with second year SLP student Katie Nguyen about her experience in grad school as a BIPOC individual, unpack the complicated barriers that face many minority student clinicians, and outline her biggest hopes for the future of cultural diversity in CSD.

A HUGE thank you to listener Madelyn for submitting today’s LingQuery!

Do YOU have a burning question about the language & communication sciences that you’d like to see featured on the show? Record your own audio “LingQuery” and DM it to @lingquery_pod on IG.

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 essential skills for success in the modern world, and the implications of falling behind in these abilities extend well beyond the classroom.

In this episode, Aidan & Emily chat with Dr. Bernard Grela about all things literacy - how it develops, how it's taught, and what happens when it’s compromised, especially in the case of dyslexia, a language disorder marked by a cluster of distinct symptoms.

A HUGE thank you to listener Mo for submitting today’s LingQuery!

Do YOU have a burning question about the language & communication sciences that you’d like to see featured on the show? Record your own audio “LingQuery” and DM it to @lingquery_pod on IG.

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 they’re relevant to individuals with aphasia, a communication disorder that often emerges after stroke or TBI. In this illuminating interview, Dr. Wadams discusses her research investigating the role of therapy that targets both meta-cognitive (the ability to think about one’s own thinking) and linguistic skills concurrently. In building clients’ self-awareness of their unique communicative strengths and weaknesses, treatment outcomes for aphasia may be vastly improved. But, navigating the layered dimensions of language, thought, and attention is NO easy task.

A HUGE thank you to listener Emmy for submitting today’s LingQuery!

Do YOU have a burning question about the language & communication sciences that you’d like to see featured on the show? Record your own audio “LingQuery” and DM it to @lingquery_pod on IG.