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From left: Meg Morgan, assistant clinical professor of communication sciences and disorders; Jenna O’Donnell ’24G; and Kay Chen, associate professor of communication sciences and disorders, collaborated on a clinical study that helped improve communication for a stroke survivor with aphasia.

What began as a conversation about how to better support a client with aphasia at the evolved into a valuable clinical experience for a graduate student, a new therapy approach, and the foundation for future research.  

Meg Morgan, assistant clinical professor of communication sciences and disorders, and Jenna O’Donnell ’24G, were working with an individual with aphasia. Aphasia makes it difficult for stroke survivors to find the words they want to say — especially verbs.  

The challenge sparked a conversation among Morgan, O’Donnell, and Kay Chen, an associate professor of communication sciences and disorders whose research focuses on interventions involving augmentative and alternative communication (AAC).  

Chen suggested a clinical study introducing a new approach called Personalized AAC Verb Enhancement (PAVE), which integrates a mobile communication app into the client’s traditional sentence-building therapy.

“We combined the two approaches by building verbs into the AAC system based on the topics the client wanted to talk about. That way, when the client had difficulty finding a word, they could use the device to communicate and practice those same words at the same time,” Chen says. “Traditionally, AAC is seen as a compensatory strategy, but it can also support spoken language production.”  

For 10 weeks, the client participated in twice-weekly therapy sessions with Morgan and O’Donnell and used the app at home. During sessions, the client practiced building sentences with verbs while using the app to find and reinforce those same words. The vocabulary was tailored to daily life, focusing on topics such as people, food, and shopping. When the client struggled to find a word, they could locate it on the app.  

“Before, the client was relying on things like finger spelling or single words, which could be hard for others to understand,” O’Donnell says. “They might say something like ‘dog,’ but you didn’t know what about the dog — if it was barking, running, or something else. We wanted to focus on strengthening those verbs, while giving another communication outlet with AAC.”  

The change in approach made an impact. Before the therapy, the client correctly named about one or two verbs out of 10 in test images. Afterward, that number rose to six to nine out of 10, depending on the topic. The client’s ability to find and use verbs within the app also improved, climbing from roughly three to five correct responses out of 10 to nearly perfect scores.  

“We always hope a new approach will work,” Morgan says. “But when someone hasn’t been retaining progress, it pushes you to try something more innovative — and in this case, it worked, which was really exciting.”  

The clinical study was recently published in

Chen is pursuing a National Institutes of Health grant to build on the study and expand it to a larger group of participants to see if it can benefit others in similar ways.  

“Traditionally, AAC is seen as a last resort. People focus on spoken language for years, and only turn to technology when they realize they need more support,” Chen says. “AAC doesn’t have to be a last resort — it can be introduced earlier to support both spoken language and daily communication.”  

In addition to improving client outcomes and shifting perceptions of AAC, Chen says expanding the research could also help caregivers and family members communicate more effectively with loved ones living with aphasia.  

For O’Donnell, the clinical study provided the opportunity to become a published author, present at the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA) Convention and build a strong foundation for her current role as a speech-language pathologist in a skilled nursing and rehabilitation setting.  

“It really shaped the clinician I am and how I approach treatment,” O’Donnell says. “Instead of just following a textbook approach, it taught me how to take evidence-based practices and make them more person-centered — tailoring them to what’s actually meaningful and functional for each client.”  

Morgan says experiences like this also highlight how research can be integrated directly into clinical care, rather than existing separately from it.  

“I think having an appreciation for treatment and intervention is really valuable as a clinician,” Morgan says. “It helps you understand why good treatment research is hard to come by — but also how even a case study like this can offer something you can actually use with clients.”