Indirectly and Directly Involved Students\u27 Perspectives on Multi-modal Communication Treatment in Persons with Aphasia

Our study investigated the perspectives of students who were either directly or indirectly involved in the Multi-modal communication treatment (MCT) sessions for persons with aphasia. Two undergraduate and two graduate students were recruited from the University of Mississippi who participated in the MCT sessions. We collected their perspectives through semi-structured interviews and used thematic qualitative analysis to analyze our data. We reported themes from the indirectly involved students and the directly involved students and compared how the themes were similar and different between the indirectly and directly involved students. We discussed that both direct and indirect experience for clinical therapy can be adequate and beneficial for students’ academic and clinical education for understanding clinical skills, gaining familiarity with aphasia, and regulating emotion toward persons with aphasia. Both methods of therapy involvement are valuable educational tools that should be strategically used within the Communication Sciences and Disorders curriculum