A Yoga Communication Group for Adults with Aphasia

Thursday, 11:00am to 1:00pm
Seabright
Poster 1
A yoga communication group is an innovative and effective approach that promotes relaxation and increases speech output in adults with aphasia. A yoga communication group for adults with aphasia was developed during the 2014 summer semester at the Kean University Center for Communication Disorders. The group included five adult clients with severe expressive aphasia, two graduate student SLP clinicians, and a yoga instructor who was also a speech-language pathologist. During six weeks of yoga group speech therapy, the progress of one severely aphasic/apraxic client in simultaneous individual therapy was carefully documented. This case study revealed a significant positive correlation between growth in yoga relaxation skills and an increase in spontaneous utterances in individual therapy. The group was offered again during the 2014 fall semester and drew an increased enrollment. All participating clients with aphasia have reported benefits from the yoga communication group and carry over of the techniques outside of the group. Yoga practice is known to be effective for persons with conditions including anxiety, ADHD, depression, hypertension, post-stroke rehabilitation, stuttering, voice care, dysarthria and dysfluencies in Parkinson's disease, and many more disabilities. Now, yoga incorporated with speech therapy appears beneficial for adults with aphasia.
Track: 
Adult