Master Class Knowledge Exchange Speaker Series – Season 19
An online series distinguished by its focus on aphasia and real-life participation. The webinars provide an opportunity for practicing clinicians to hear from a prestigious group of international aphasia researchers. Webinars will be available Live and Archive (Recorded).


specific products or clinical procedures.
Please refer to each course description for instructional level and ASHA CEUs

Date/Time:
LIVE: September 18, 2023 – 4pm to 5pm ET | ARCHIVE: September 19 – October 3, 2023
ASHA CEUs: 0.1 ASHA CEUs (Intermediate level)
Webinar Description
This webinar will explore NARNIA, a comprehensive multilevel language intervention for aphasia that targets naturalistic discourse. The session will include a presentation of the evidence, a ‘how-to-do-it’ in practice guide, critical ingredients, suggested mechanisms of change, and insights on who this intervention may work best with and how.
Meet the Presenter
Professor Anne Whitworth is Academic Lead at the University of Tasmania, Australia, with a passion for ensuring theory reaches the clinical setting. Working in aphasia for over 30 years, she is motivated by how language works and how it breaks down, what makes interventions effective, and of how we can make the most difference through our choices in therapy, with discourse being a central theme.
Learning Outcomes
– Describe the principles of a multilevel aphasia therapy
– Explain how NARNIA works
– Apply NARNIA flexibly with different clients
Agenda
12:00pm – 12:05pm: The theory behind NARNIA
12:05pm – 12:15pm: What does NARNIA look like
12:15pm – 12:25pm: How does NARNIA work
12:25pm – 12:35pm: Current evidence base for NARNIA
12:35pm – 12:40pm: Video of NARNIA in practice
12:40pm – 1:00pm: Question and answer session
Disclosures
Financial: Anne Whitworth receives salary from the University of Tasmania.
Non-Financial: None.
Course Content Disclosure: This course will focus solely on the Novel Approach to Real-life communication: Narrative Intervention in Aphasia (NARNIA). The course will not include information on other approaches.

Date/Time:
LIVE: October 23, 2023 – 12pm to 1pm ET | ARCHIVE: October 24 – November 7, 2023
ASHA CEUs: 0.1 ASHA CEUs (Intermediate level)
Webinar Description
In this webinar, we will explore the needs, trends, opportunities, and challenges in supporting life participation for people with aphasia and those who care about them. We will highlight important global capacity-building priorities for supporting social models, key challenges in transnational engagement, and ethical considerations.
Meet the Presenter
Brooke Hallowell, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, FNAP, ASHA Fellow, is a distinguished academic leader, eyetracking pioneer, and advocate for people with aphasia. She’s a WHO consultant, WRA founding representative, and chair of ASHA’s committee on ethics in global engagement. The author of a Life Participation-focused text on aphasia, she is passionate about empowering clinical excellence. Hallowell’s transformative transnational work stems from personal experience.
Learning Outcomes
– Describe key priorities for those engaging in transnational work to support social models of aphasia.
– Identify challenges in supporting social models of aphasia globally.
– Provide examples of strategies to enhance ethical and culturally responsive transnational work to foster life participation for people with aphasia.
Agenda
12:00pm – 12:05pm: Introduction
12:05pm – 12:15pm: Global trends and needs in aphasiology
12:15pm – 12:25pm: Global capacity building priorities for social models
12:25pm – 12:30pm: The demand for cultural and linguistic responsivity in capacity building
12:30pm – 12:45pm: Ethical considerations for transnational engagement
12:45pm – 1:00pm: Question and answer session
Disclosures
Financial: Brooke Hallowell is salaried by Springfield College and receives royalties for a book cited in this webinar. Some of the work discussed here was supported by private foundation funding (Epstein Teicher Philanthropies).
Non-Financial: None.

Date/Time:
LIVE: November 13, 2023 – 12pm to 1pm ET | ARCHIVE: November 14 – 28, 2023
ASHA CEUs: 0.1 ASHA CEUs (Intermediate level)
Webinar Description
This webinar will discuss how people with aphasia converse across a variety of virtual settings. We will share data from virtual conversation groups and how facilitators actions may compare to face-to-face groups, the barriers and strategies employed in this virtual space, and, how people with aphasia and their conversation partners engage in text messaging conversations.
Meet the Presenter
Jamie H. Azios, Ph.D., CCC-SLP is the Doris B. Hawthorne Endowed Chair at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Her research interests include qualitative research, conversation in aphasia, and the impact of communicative environments on social inclusion. She has published articles related to client-centeredness, communication access, functional outcomes of therapy, and friendship and aphasia.
Learning Outcomes
– Discuss three facilitation strategies specific to online conversation groups.
– Describe similarities and differences between face-to-face and online aphasia groups.
– Identify three strategies that a person with aphasia or their partner could use during text messaging conversations.
Agenda
12:00pm – 12:10pm: Background of Face-to-face aphasia group research
12:10pm – 12:25pm: Methods and Findings of Virtual Conversation group study
12:25pm – 12:30pm: Clinical Implications
12:30pm – 12:35pm: Background of Texting Conversation
12:35pm – 12:45pm: Methods and Findings of Conversation Analysis of Texting Data
12:45pm – 12:50pm: Clinical Implications
12:50pm – 1:00pm: Question and answer session
Disclosures
Financial: Dr. Jamie Azios receives a salary from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Some of the research reported in this presentation was supported by the National Institute On Deafness And Other Communication Disorders of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R15DC020836.
Non-Financial: Dr. Jamie Azios serves as a Research Associate at the Aphasia Institute.

Date/Time:
LIVE: December 4, 2023 – 12pm to 1pm ET | ARCHIVE: December 5 – 19, 2023
ASHA CEUs: 0.1 ASHA CEUs (Intermediate level)
Webinar Description
People with aphasia are at high risk of mood problems post-stroke, yet limited evidence exists on effective interventions to improve mental health and prevent depression. This webinar will identify the need to address mental health in the rehabilitation of people with aphasia and one specific intervention, peer-befriending, which utilizes the skills of people with aphasia themselves will be described. The SUpporting wellbeing through PEeR-Befriending (SUPERB) intervention trial and its outcomes will be discussed.
Meet the Presenter
Dr. Katerina Hilari is a Professor of Acquired Communication Disorders and Research Centre Director (Joint) for the Centre of Language and Communication Sciences at City, University of London. She is an SLT with a background in Psychology. Her research is driven by the priorities of people with aphasia and focuses on developing and evaluating the effectiveness of complex interventions. It also focuses on the psychosocial impact of aphasia and the development and use of patient-reported outcome measures.
Learning Outcomes
– Identify the need to address the psychosocial impact of aphasia in SLP practice
– Review the need to capitalise on the skills of people with aphasia
– Discuss key parameters and outcomes of SUPERB peer-befriending
Agenda
12:00pm – 12:10pm: Introduction and the psychosocial impact of aphasia
12:10pm – 12:15pm: Why peer befriending?
12:15pm – 12:45pm: The SUPERB peer befriending scheme and its outcomes
12:45pm – 1:00pm: Question and answer session
Disclosures
Financial: Dr. Katerina Hilari receives a salary from City, Univesity of London
Non-Financial: Board of Trustees, Aphasia Reconnect
Course Content Disclosure: In this course, the discussion will focus on the “SUpporting wellbeing through PEeR-Befriending” (SUPERB) intervention. The course will not include information on other interventions.
Registration Details
FEES:
Individual Registration (4 Webinars Series): $120 CAD
Group Rate for 12 Participants (4 Webinars Series): $250 CAD
Group Rate for 30 Participants (4 Webinars Series): $350 CAD
Not receiving our email updates? Contact us at training@aphasia.ca to sign up.
External Educational Opportunities
We are proud to share the following educational opportunities offered by other organizations.
Date/Time: October 26 & 27, 2023 | 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (ET) daily
Description
This CCCABI Course integrates research evidence, clinical insights, and the lived experience of those with ABI and provides tools and resources to enhance clinical practice. Praised by both new and seasoned clinicians, sought after by employers, and acclaimed nationally and internationally, the CCCABI course is a “must attend” for speech-language pathologists working in ABI.
The CCCABI Course was initially offered as Cognitive-Communication Disorders Level 1 (CCD Level 1), then expanded to include Level 2 (CCD 2), and a Mild/Concussion course. Sheila MacDonald has designed and regularly updated the course based on feedback from participating colleagues.
Meet the Presenter
Sheila MacDonald is an internationally recognized presenter, and researcher who has developed standardized assessment measures (FAVRES, SFAVRES), a referral checklist (CCCABI), a guiding model of cognitive- communication competence, practice guidelines, and publications on evidence-based practice. Her courses draw on research evidence, insights from clinicians around the world, and the lived experiences of those with brain injuries and their families shared at bedside and kitchen tables in over 30 years of speech-language pathology clinical practice.
For more details and to register, please click here.