Meta-Cognition & Aphasia Treatment with Dr. Amanda Wadams

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.

Welcome to LingQuery, the show that asks - and attempts to answer - questions related to the language and communication sciences. Every episode, we respond in tandem with guests from a wide variety of disciplines to an audience-submitted question or “LingQuery”, all about human communication and its array of interrelated systems and modalities. Uncovering fascinating insights and perspectives you won’t hear anywhere else, this series explores the nature of phenomena such as speech, language, and cognition from the perspectives of biology, psychology, anthropology, art, and more. LingQuery, listen wherever you get your pods. 

Produced by LittleFire.

Directed & edited by Raz Cunningham

Co-written & co-hosted by Aidan Laliberte & Emily Tuohey