2003V - Get it Right!: Identifying Communication Deficits After Right-Hemisphere Stroke

Many individuals experience changes to their communication after right hemisphere stroke, leading to speech that is tangential, egocentric, or pragmatically inappropriate and which may lack the appropriate emotional intonation to convey the speaker’s true feelings about what they say. However, relatively few of these individuals receive the appropriate referrals, evaluations, and intervention needed to improve. SLPs report feeling ill-prepared to assess and diagnose impaired communication in this population. This session will review the evidence on the topic of communication after right hemisphere stroke and identify the areas of deficit we know the most about and those that are still being investigated. We will then provide practical evidence-based guidance for the assessment of communication in this population.